South Elgin savors first regional crown
Senior standout Becca Smith scored a game-high 26 points to lead South Elgin to a 66-50 win over Streamwood Friday night in the Class 4A South Elgin regional championship game, the Storm's first regional title in girls basketball.
But that's far from the whole story of this game.
As meaningful as every point Smith scored was every point 6-foot Streamwood sophomore Hannah McGlone wasn't able to score.
A combination of foul trouble and a superb defensive effort from South Elgin sophomore Kennede Miller limited McGlone to just 5 points, and that in large part took Streamwood out of its chance for the program's first regional title since 1988.
"Kennede Miller did a fantastic job on McGlone tonight," said sixth-year Storm coach Tim Prendergast. "That was the key. We figured if we could hold her to 15 we'd be all right."
Miller had other ideas.
"She's a really good player," said the 6-1 Miller of McGlone. "I felt really responsible for her and my goal was to hold her under 10."
The win advances South Elgin (19-10) to Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. McHenry sectional to play Cary-Grove (20-8). Hononegah meets DeKalb in the Monday semi and the winners face off Thursday for the right to play the Hoffman Estates sectional winner in the Feb. 27 Elgin supersectional.
The tide of Friday's game changed with just over a minute left in the first quarter when McGlone picked up her third foul. South Elgin led 12-8 at that point but with McGlone on the bench, the Storm stretched its lead to 36-26 by halftime. Smith, who also had 7 assists, 5 steals and 11 rebounds, scored 17 points in the first half.
"It was a great team effort tonight," said Smith, the Loyola recruit who now has 2,028 career points and became the Fox Valley's second all-time leading scorer Friday night. "Ken and Savanah (Uveges) played amazing tonight. They played older than they are."
In addition to her defensive efforts, Miller added 7 points and 7 rebounds while her classmate and multisport talent Uveges had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 6 steals. South Elgin hit 25 of 54 from the field and outrebounded the Sabres 36-24.
"Everybody pitched in tonight," Smith said. "I'm just so proud of this team. I said at the beginning of the season it was going to be a season of firsts for us and I think we can go into this sectional and do great things."
With McGlone back on the floor and juniors Jessica Cerda and Deja Moore playing well offensively, the Sabres (15-14) cut what was a 13-point deficit midway through the third quarter to 7, 46-39, on a McGlone basket with 1:56 left in the period. But the Sabres had two good shots rim out that could have cut the lead to 5, Uveges scored on a drive into the lane and Alexa Matison hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left that gave the Storm a 51-39 lead going into the fourth. South Elgin then led by as many as 17 in the fourth quarter as the Storm used their delay offense to run clock and keep the ball away from Streamwood.
"I think our speed got to them a little," said Prendergast. "We're a fast-paced team but at this time of the year you have to play defense and we did tonight. Hopefully this is the first of many to come. I just can't describe how excited I am."
Cerda scored 19 points and Moore had 12 to lead Streamwood, which ended the season with just one healthy senior player.
"Hannah's foul trouble was the key," said Streamwood coach George Rosner, who may have coached the last game of his 32-year career as he is retiring as a teacher at the end of the school year. "We had it going OK and we were right where we wanted to be. Calls are made, but that hurt. But we were only down 10 at halftime with Hannah not playing so we thought we had a good shot. (South Elgin) is a very good team and Becca's a great player.
"We're disappointed but to get 15 wins and second place in the conference with all the injuries we had, we're proud of that. I'll be back if I'm allowed back. I want to coach. We didn't start a senior tonight so it's nice to know we have a good group back."