Late big plays help South Elgin get past York
Clutch plays at both ends of the floor in the final two minutes allowed the South Elgin boys basketball team to edge host York 36-33 at the 38th Jack Tosh Holiday Classic in Elmhurst Thursday.
South Elgin (7-6) will play Waubonsie Valley for the consolation championship today at 2:30 p.m. York (6-6) will play Conant for 11th place at 3:30 p.m.
York took its biggest lead of the game, 33-29, with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter when 6-foot-2 junior David Cohn sank an open 3-pointer. Cohn scored 17 of York's 33 points, but his 3-pointer marked the last time the Dukes scored against the Storm defense.
South Elgin pulled within a point with 1:37 to play when point guard Jake Maestranzi came off a screen in transition and buried a 3-pointer.
The Storm defense subsequently forced a five-second call against the Dukes on the perimeter to regain possession with 1:18 to play. South Elgin coach Chaz Taft called 2 timeouts during the ensuing possession, the last coming with 23.8 seconds left to draw up a set play.
When the Storm returned to the floor they ran a different twist on an inbounds play, which resulted in Maestranzi receiving the ball on a cut to the basket. He drove to the hoop for a layup and a 34-33 lead with 14 seconds left.
"We flipped our sideline out-of-bounds play so now we get Jake coming off a ball screen," Taft explained.
"It was a great play call by coach," Maestranzi said. "I got a good screen, I came off it and I knew I wanted to take the shot. It fell for me."
Looking for an answer, York, not surprisingly, put the ball in Cohn's hands. He drove from the backcourt to the top of the key and came off a screen, but his leaping attempt at the go-ahead layup resulted in a charging call, drawn by South Elgin's Kris Fojas with 4.6 seconds to play.
As with most player control fouls whistled in the final seconds of close games, the two sides saw it differently.
"I didn't think it was a charge, personally,"Cohn said. "I thought he was still sliding, but, I mean, you've got to call something in that situation. Unfortunately, it was not what we wanted, but there's nothing you can do about it."
"I just saw him coming, driving hard," Fojas said. "Coach always tells me to take a charge. We talked about that, that (Cohn) was going to drive in and try to make something happen. I just had to step up and just take a charge on that."
South Elgin's Devonte Everett was immediately fouled on the inbounds play and sank 2 free throws for the final margin, but the Storm didn't breathe easy until Cohn's desperation heave from midcourt rolled off the front of the rim after bouncing on it twice precariously.
The Storm held the Dukes to 5 points in the fourth quarter and 34-percent shooting from the field overall. York's 33 points were 10 fewer than its previous season low.
"I give their coach a lot of credit,"Cohn said of Taft. "Coach (Tom) Kleinschmidt always says he is one of the best coaches around. We can all learn something from that loss. They really did play great defense."
"I just told my guys you have to stick with it," Taft said of South Elgin's defensive performance. "You have to get in the gap, you have to play hard-nosed, tough defense and on-the-ball pressure and make them do things they're normally not used to doing. Make them be a protector, not a ballhandler.
"It was a good team win, especially here at York going against the great Tommy Kleinschmidt and his team."