South Elgin’s balance does in Burlington C.
Having not played a game for 13 days, and being limited in practice opportunities recently because of the bad weather, South Elgin girls basketball coach Tim Prendergast expected his team to be a little rusty Monday night.
Fortunately for the Storm, Burlington Central was also coming off a long break, and the Rockets showed the effects of it more than South Elgin.
Becca Smith scored 19 points and was 3 assists from a triple-double, and sophomore Kennede Miller added 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Storm rolled to an easy 71-39 nonconference win over the Rockets in South Elgin.
“We were sloppy on offense and didn’t have a real good rhythm tonight,” said South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast. “Burlington Central’s a nice team. We just wanted to get a win and now we’re 13-8 and hopefully we’ll get the No. 1 seed in our regional.”
The Storm jumped out to a 10-2 lead, made it 21-9 by the end of the first quarter, 37-13 at halftime and cruised through the second half. South Elgin hit 31 of 69 shots from the floor and only turned the ball over 10 times, doing a good job all night of getting everyone involved in the offense.
“We came out quick and realized we could get everyone involved in this game so that’s what we tried to do,” said Smith, who had 14 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 3 blocks to go along with her 19 points, a total that puts the Loyola recruit at 1,864 for her career. “Our legs were a little tired. It’s been a while since we’ve been on the court together.”
One of the brighter spots for the Storm was Miller, who played a strong and consistent game in the paint all night.
“Kennede Miller had a real nice game tonight,” said Prendergast. “She ran the floor real well and she gets after it pretty good.”
“We worked on her posting up and finishing down low,” added Smith. “She did a nice job of that tonight.”
South Elgin also got 13 points from senior Alexa Matison, including 3 3-pointers. Prendergast was pleased with his guard play overall, as well as the defense sophomore Savanah Uveges played on Burlington Central (8-12) leading scorer Jessica Laird.
“I thought Alexa Matison played very well tonight and Savanah did a nice job on Jessica,” he said. “One of our strengths is the open court. We ran the floor real well tonight and we pushed the ball.”
Meanwhile, Burlington Central coach Jenna Real knew her team would have a tough night against South Elgin, but she also came away disappointed the Rockets didn’t compete better, despite the fact BC hadn’t played in 9 days.
“We knew they had strong guards but we also knew we had a mismatch with them in the post,” she said. “But we didn’t use it and that cost us a competitive game. Our guards rushed things tonight and we just weren’t patient on offense.”
Real also hopes the experience of playing a Class 4A team will help her team down the road.
“Becca does a nice job and it’s good for our guards to play against that,” said Real, whose team committed 26 turnovers and was 16-for-55 shooting. “She can do it all and it’s something our kids can learn from.”
Freshman Alison Colby led the Rockets with 12 points and 9 rebounds, while Sarah Nelson added 10 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. Laird was held to 9 points and didn’t have a field goal until the fourth quarter.
“Sarah Nelson did a nice job for us tonight and Jo Jo DeSantis came off the bench and did a nice job,” Real said.