South Elgin knocks off Hoffman for 5th straight

South Elgin shot its way to a fifth straight victory in Saturday's 58-56 win over visiting Hoffman Estates, which dropped its second consecutive 2-point decision.

The Storm shot 20-of-36 from the field and connected on 9-of-15 attempts from 3-point range, including 6 of 7 in the second half.

"They were 50 percent from the 3-point line and I think that's the key to the game for them," Hoffman Estates coach Bill Wandro said. "They got their open looks and they knocked them down."

Hoffman Estates (4-3) jumped to a 14-1 lead, but South Elgin (7-1) closed the gap to 29-25 at the half and caught the Hawks for the first time when senior guard Tommy Childs sank a 3-pointer with 4:47 left in the third quarter. Childs led all scorers with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting.

The Storm led 40-38 heading to the fourth quarter and grabbed a 6-point lead with 2:57 remaining in the game on the third of junior guard Sam Sutter's three 3-pointers of the period.

"Our offense works the ball around to create open shots and coach has confidence in me to shoot it," said Sutter, who sank 4-of-7 long-range attempts. "They went in today."

However, the Hawks battled back to tie the game and send it to the wire. They drew closer with an inside bucket by 6-foot-4 center Colin Conway and a fast-break layup by senior guard Kevin Tiongson (20 points). Conway knotted the score at 56 with 1:33 left when he grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a shooting foul and buried both free throws.

Hoffman Estates sank 25-of-27 free throws in the game, but it was South Elgin that ultimately won the game at the free-throw line.

The Storm ran their offense and ate clock for the next 1:24 until Childs drove to the right of the lane and was fouled. He sank both bonus attempts for a 58-56 lead with 9 seconds left.

"We just wanted to make sure we got (Childs) into one of our isolation sets so he could go to the basket," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said.

The Hawks dribbled across midcourt and called timeout with 1.9 seconds left. When they returned to the floor they got the ball to Tiongson coming off a screen at the top of the circle, but his shot, defended by Childs, drew the front rim as time expired.

"We didn't want any threes," Childs said. "If they were going to make a shot, it was going to have to be a two so we could go to overtime. And we switched off screens."