Childs, South Elgin claim championship again at Fenton

South Elgin senior guard Tommy Childs felt his performance last year in Fenton's Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving Tournament might have warranted Most Valuable Player considerations in other years.

Unfortunately for Childs, he shared the stage with former Naperville Central standout and current Northwestern Wildcat Drew Crawford, instead settling for all-tournament team honors.

No one could keep Childs from the accolade this year.

The 5-foot-8 Childs earned MVP honors thanks to a 17-point effort Friday night, leading the Storm past Libertyville 53-34 and helping South Elgin earn its second consecutive tournament title in Bensenville.

"It felts great," a smiling Childs said afterward. "I wanted it last year, but Drew Crawford was here so I had to wait my turn."

While the focus may have been on his game-high 17 points, Childs pointed to the Storm's stellar defensive effort as the key to victory.

"That's what we work on every day in practice, so that's not a surprise to me," Childs said. "We do doubles the first two weeks of practice, and it really paid off today."

As for the offensive numbers?

"I really don't care if I score. We don't care about that stuff," Childs said. "I'll do what I have to do for my team to win. As long as we get the win, that's all I care about."

South Elgin (3-1) jumped out to an 18-6 lead after the first quarter, thanks to a well-prepared defense which forced Libertyville (2-2) into a 3-for-11 shooting performance out of the gate.

"Our scouting reports and everything we did through the whole tournament, the kids really followed it and understood what they were running," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "They did a really good job of following the scouting report."

The Wildcats never scored more than 10 points in a quarter against the active South Elgin defense, converting just 16 of their 50 field goal attempts.

"We just really struggled," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "We got down, and we were trying to pressure them to try to get back in the game when it got to double digits, and that's just not our game.

"They just took us out of what we were trying to do. Down 12 or 13, we were chasing, and we can't chase them."

Senior forward Billy Meyer led the Wildcats with 10 points. Forwards Luke Mathewson and Hobie Herberger each chipped in 8.