South Elgin falls short at York

A late scoring burst gave the South Elgin Storm boys basketball team a chance at a come-from-behind victory, but in the end the Storm fell just short.

Maine South defeated the Storm 30-28 in the opening round of the annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School in Elmhurst on Tuesday.

The Storm (5-6) shot just 12-for-37 from the field/

Maine South led the entire game as the Storm could not hit the key shots needed to overcome their deficits.

“Twelve-for-37 is a low percentage,” said Storm coach Chaz Taft. “We missed some wide-open shots. We’ve got to make those if we’re going to win this game.”

Defensively, the Storm did its job, and never allowed double-digit points in a quarter until the fourth.

“I was happy with what we did defensively,” said Taft. “We turned them over a little bit with our ball pressure, and I thought we did a pretty good job with that.”

Junior guard Jacob Maestranzi led the Storm with 11 points, while junior Kristopheroy Fojas notched 6.

For the Hawks, junior forward John Solari led the way with 10 points, while senior guard Nick Calebrese and junior forward Danny Quinn each had 6 points.

Maestranzi hit a 3-pointer with about two minutes to go in the game to get the Storm within 1, but they fouled Solari and he made consecutive free throws to keep the lead alive for the Hawks.

Darius Wells attempted a 3-pointer of his own to tie the game at 28 with under a minute to go, but before the shot went up, Maestranzi got fouled and the basket was no good.

With the Storm down by 5, Maestranzi hit another 3-pointer to give them a chance, but the Hawks held on.

Despite the loss, Taft was happy with Maestranzi’s performance.

“He’s been our leader all year,” Taft said of Maestranzi. “He was really solid again tonight, and he’s been that way for about two and a half years now.”