Childs' 36 power South Elgin over Jacobs

This one could have reminded you of an old-fashioned barnfloor game.

Jacobs and South Elgin had a barnburner going for the first half, combining for 84 points and making 33 of 51 shots, including seven 3-pointers. As Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said it was the Golden Eagles' best first half of basketball.

The game was tied at 42, but South Elgin stopped, dropped, and outscored the Eagles 19-8 in the third quarter by raising its defense and forcing Jacobs to shoot 36 percent for the second half.

Plus, the Storm's Tommy Childs matched Jacobs' second half shooting percentage for points as the Storm clipped Jacobs 79-67 in a nonconference boys basketball matchup in Algonquin Saturday night.

And to think, South Elgin (11-4) held Upstate Eight Conference foe St. Charles North to just 44 points Tuesday night.

"I don't think we've ever been 42-42 at the half. It's unbelievable," said Storm coach Chaz Taft. "We talked about how we didn't get one single digit quarter in the first half. So we said in the third quarter we have to come out and get some stops, got to get consecutive stops in a row, and we gotta hold them to a single digit quarter. We were right on target there."

South Elgin hit its target, with 8 Jacobs points in the third and kept the hot hand. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Sam Jordt and Childs gave the Storm a 48-44 lead around the 4-minute mark. Then Childs, who scored 11 in the quarter, scored on a layup that began a 23-6 run with 2:55 left. He hit back-to-back 3-pointers, including a near-half court shot at the buzzer that continued the run into the fourth, when he and Sam Sutter (17 points) put Jacobs down 71-50 with under 6 minutes remaining.

"Our defense was consistent all night. It was poor all four quarters," Hinkle said. "In the third quarter we tried to go to a zone for a while and they blew the game open. It really wasn't because the zone was better or worse, it was because we didn't shoot as well and our defense wasn't good all night.

"Their quickness was able to break us down and we tried to stop them one-on-one instead of getting and one-and-help, one-and-help and one-and-help, and we weren't able to do that."

That applied to Childs. His 18 first-half points helped the game see saw until halftime, when the most either team led was by 6. At one point, Childs hit consecutive 3-pointers, and Brooks then hit one to make it 17-14 Jacobs with 3:30 left in the first. That's basically how the half went between the two teams, except South Elgin stayed hot, shooting just under 61 percent for the game. Childs nailed five 3-pointers, and when he wasn't decimating Jacobs from the perimeter, he was silky smooth going to the hoop.

"I don't know if we made him an all-stater, or if he is an all-stater, but this game he was." said Hinkle.

"I can't lie its like one of those days when everything just drops," Childs said. "Hey, you take your shots, they go in. Today was my day."

The bright spot for Jacobs was TJ Brooks, who scored 19 points, and Sean Meyer, who had 16.