Smith explodes for 32, South Elgin dumps Jacobs

For almost 15 minutes Wednesday night, sophomore Becca Smith was the only player to score for the South Elgin girls basketball team.

Fortunately for the Storm, Smith had enough help in the first half.

Smith scored a career-high 32 points, including 28 of the Storm's final 35, as South Elgin defeated Jacobs, 56-47, in nonconference play.

"We were really pushing the ball," Smith said. "The post (players) got it to me in transition and gave me an opportunity to score."

After falling behind by as many as 9 points in the first quarter, Jacobs (5-2) went on a 6-0 run to tie the game at 21-21 with 2:05 left in the first half.

But that was when Smith took over. Smith scored 8 points during a 10-0 Storm run to end the first half. Alyssa Krause, who scored 8 first-half points, added a basket during the run. Smith scored all 9 of South Elgin's points in the third quarter as the Storm (4-4) took a 40-28 lead into the fourth. Smith then scored the Storm's first 7 points of the fourth before Dijon Smith's basket with 2:30 remaining.

Becca Smith scored 28 of the Storm's final 35 points. She went 10-for-20 from the floor and 11-for-14 from the free-throw line. She also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds, 6 offensive.

"Becca has really been struggling," South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast said. "She's been trying to do too much. I thought she was able to get into the flow of the game (Wednesday). She didn't force too many things. She played the way she's capable of playing."

The Storm crashed the offensive boards as 15 of its 32 rebounds were on the offensive end.

The Golden Eagles led just twice, the final time coming at 5-4 2 minutes into the game, and would not get any closer than 6 in the second half. Jacobs committed 32 turnovers, including 22 in the first half.

Maria Tamburrino led the Golden Eagles with 18 points. Katy Cook added 10.

"Turnovers and rebounds (really hurt us)," Jacobs coach Ed Haugens said. "We didn't make very good decisions."