South Elgin turns defense into offense, downs ACC
South Elgin figured the best way to beat Aurora Central Catholic's 2-3 zone defense was to keep the visiting Chargers from setting it up in the first place.
Leading 24-23 midway through the third quarter, the Storm used smothering defense to ignite the transition game. South Elgin made 5 steals and capitalized on 10 ACC turnovers in the period to finish the quarter on a 16-0 run en route to a 55-35 nonconference boys basketball victory Tuesday night in South Elgin.
"We talked at halftime about making sure they don't' have a chance to set up in the zone after we rebound the ball," Storm coach Chaz Taft said. "Just push the ball and get it to the basket."
The win was the sixth straight for South Elgin (8-1). The loss was the second in three outings for Aurora Central Catholic (5-2), which opened the season 4-0.
South Elgin deliberately attacked ACC's zone defense well enough to lead 24-17 at halftime, its final 2 points of the first half coming on a rebound tip at the buzzer by junior Matt Hattendorf, a play on which Aurora Central coach Nathan Drye argued for basket interference to no avail.
Hattendorf came off the bench to grab 8 rebounds to go with his 4 points. "Getting rebounds was my main focus," he said.
The Chargers bolted from the third-quarter gate with a 6-0 run, keyed by senior point guard Steve Hollon's three-point play.
With its lead down to a point, the Storm responded with a jump shot and a drive by senior guard Tommy Childs, a steal and hustling finish to a fast break by junior Matthew Downing and a 3-pointer by Sam Sutter. Four straight South Elgin steals at the end of the third quarter resulted in 6 points by hustling senior forward Sam Jordt, who led the Storm with 15 points.
"With our team defense turns into offense," Jordt said. "When they sit in a zone, you have to make something happen. You can't just set up for all threes. I felt in the first half we were doing that, but in the third quarter we kicked it up on defense and got a lot of fast break points."
ACC shooting guard Joey Guth scored 15 points in the first half, but the Chargers couldn't get consistent offensive production from anyone else, due mainly to South Elgin's aggressive defense. Both coaches credited the defensive effort on Hollon by South Elgin freshman guard Jake Maestranzi in the first half and Childs in the second half for keeping Aurora Central from developing any offensive rhythm.
"I thought the whole key to the game tonight was (Maestranzi) pressuring our point guard and taking us out of a lot of what we wanted to do offensively," Aurora Central Catholic coach Nathan Drye said. "As soon as they took him out they switched Childs on to him. We could just never get anybody to relieve the pressure." ACC committed 21 turnovers, South Elgin 8.
Sutter finished with 12 points, including three 3-pointers, and Childs added 10 points and 3 rebounds for the Storm. Hollon finished with 6 points and 3 rebounds for the Chargers.