Boys basketball: South Elgin’s pressure gets to Bartlett

South Elgin closed out the first half with a 14-3 run, then outscored Bartlett 18-4 in the third quarter on the way to a 55-26 Upstate Eight West basketball victory Friday night in Bartlett.

Utilizing a 2-3 zone defense to near perfection, the Storm (5-11, 4-1) forced 14 turnovers while limiting the Hawks (5-13, 4-2) to 28% shooting from the field (11 for 39), including 17% (3 for 18) from beyond the arc.

“Last year, Joey (Bartlett junior guard Cwik) gave us a lot of problems, getting downhill and controlling the game,” said South Elgin coach Ryan Storm. “We tried to make it a collective effort to take him down — try to funnel him inside to size that maybe wasn’t there a year ago.”

That size included 6-foot-6 senior Ilija Babic, who scored 10 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished out 4 assists, and 6-3 junior forward Kyle Mann, who finished with 8 points, 10 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 blocked shots.

“I put on a few pounds over the summer,” said Babic. “I’ve been working a lot on my post moves. Obviously, I missed a few shots but I found my teammates when they were open, and we beat them by 30.”

Guards Larry Smith III and Massimo Nalbano paced the Storm with 11 points apiece, while Kevin Beckford, Jr. came off the bench to score 8 points.

“Credit to my guys — they played well,” said Storm. “We’ve been on this now (zone) since November, trying to get them to use their hands and get their arms out.

“We lost Ilija (Babic) during Christmas and it forced us to play bigger than we normally do, and some things worked out well,” said Storm. “Now, you add him back into the mix and it makes us that much bigger.”

Nalbano and Smith III combined for 10 points in the third quarter, and the Storm lead swelled to 30 at 53-23, forcing a running clock for the final 4-plus minutes.

Brandon Pelz, Quint’ion Wright, and Cwik scored 6 points each for the Hawks.

“We were ready for it (zone),” said Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith, “but we didn’t execute well enough. I thought the moment of the game got too big for us in the second quarter.

“It felt like every shot was a 12-point jumper in the second half. Unfortunately, that has been happening to us this year. We get on those negative runs, and we just can’t pull ourselves out of it. I have to do a better job as a coach calling timeouts and getting our guys settled.”

With the win, South Elgin remains atop the UEC West alongside West Aurora in the loss column, a game ahead of Bartlett and East Aurora.

“We’re trying to win conference,” said Babic.

“These guys have goals and they’re going to keep working,” said Storm.

Bartlett plays host to St. Charles East on Monday before visiting West Aurora next Friday.

“We’ve got to respond and play better basketball than we have recently,” said Wolfsmith.