South Elgin stuns previously unbeaten Oswego at York

Chaz Taft's South Elgin boys basketball team had the uncanny task of coming off a 10-day layoff to play a very good and undefeated Oswego squad to open up tournament play in the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York Monday night.

But instead of coming off the break sluggish and winded, the Storm ran a track meet.

After racing out to a 10-point second quarter lead thanks to a solid defensive press, South Elgin (6-4) continued that into the second half, turning on the burners offensively as well, making 30 of 45 shots on its way to upsetting third-seeded Oswego, 74-58, to advance to the quarterfinal round Tuesday at 7.15 p.m. against host York.

"They were kind of trapping on the fly, trying to get the ball out of Jake's (Maestranzi) hands and I thought we did a great job of making the extra pass to the guy who was open on rotation," Taft said. "I thought we did a great job on making that extra pass for easy layups."

When South Elgin wasn't in a full-court press itself causing turnovers (15) left and right, the Storm was busy flourishing an offense that kept making the extra pass for easy layups. The Storm shot 64 percent from the field and only missed 2 shots in the third quarter.

A 21-point second quarter gave the Storm a 7-point halftime lead thanks to Sammy Sutter, who had a game-high 27 points. Sutter and Martin Duarte got to the basket on several layups as the Storm's pressure stymied the Panthers.

"We knew we were up against a hardworking, hard-nosed team," Oswego coach Kevin Chanable said. "They out-hustled us, outplayed us, they beat us to the ball, took us out of what we wanted to do, we didn't shoot the ball well because of their defense and we didn't go to the glass. They wanted it more than we did."

And if the second quarter didn't do the Panthers (7-1) in, it was the Storm's third that completely blew it open.

Sutter would score 9 in the third, as he extended the lead to 14 with 3:21 left when he tossed it up on a heave from the left block. South Elgin outscored Oswego 27-16 in the third, hitting 11 of 13 shots.

"We really wanted to get into the gaps on them get there really quick," Sutter said. "When we shut down the gaps they had weakside rotations that gets those takes and we all sprint into the lanes, sprint up and get easy layups."

Dillon Gardner (12 points), Matthew Downing (11 points) and Durate also benefited in the third on layups as the Storm watched the lead grow to 22 at one point.

"It's a big win for us, hopefully it gets us going in the right direction," Taft said.

Elliot McGaughy led Oswego with 19 points.