South Elgin rains 3s on East Aurora

A record-setting 3-point barrage put the South Elgin boys basketball team back in the win column Wednesday.

Storm senior guard Eric Stazy and junior point guard Jake Maestranzi each sank five 3-pointers and sophomore guard Darius Wells connected on two more in a 62-41 victory over visiting East Aurora in Upstate Eight Valley action.

The 12 field goals from beyond the arc set a new school single-game record for South Elgin (10-12, 3-7), which halted a 4-game slide.

“Everyone was looking for each other, and we’re able to feed off each other when we pass the ball like we did,” said Stazy, who sank four straight 3-point attempts in the first half.

South Elgin made 12 of its 17 attempts from 3-point range overall, which left an impression on the Tomcats.

“(Heck), we can go out there with no defense and we wouldn’t make 12 out of 17, so give them credit for knocking them down,” East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. “We gave them a couple open looks to get their confidence going, but you have to give them credit for making so many.”

East Aurora (2-20, 1-9) took the floor without leading scorer Larry Reynolds and sophomore point guard Mike McAlister for undisclosed reasons. South Elgin showed no mercy.

The Storm bolted to a 20-15 lead after a quarter, which expanded to a 31-19 cushion with 2:58 left in the first half on Stazy’s fourth straight 3-pointer. In fact, Stazy’s field goal concluded a six-minute sequence during which he and Maestranzi combined to sink 6-of-7 attempts from 3-point range.

“ Eric was making a lot of shots,” Maestranzi said. “We moved the ball, found the open guy. It’s always good to win.”

South Elgin’s 62 points marked a season high for a team that entered February averaging 40.5 points per game. The previous high score for the Storm was 57 points in their season-opening win over Fenton.

South Elgin big men Matthew Downing and Zach Marotta each picked up 3 first-half fouls and eventually fouled out, but the unrelenting perimeter barrage contributions off the bench picked up the slack.

“They got our bigs in foul trouble, but we were able to bring guys off our bench who were a little more athletic,” Storm coach Chaz Taft said. “We were coming off a 4-game losing streak and the kids just didn’t play well during that stretch, so this was good for them. They shot the ball real well. We just took our shots and played good defense. I was proud of them.”

Senior Tyrone Savage and junior DeJon Talbert each scored 8 points and junior Steve Green added 7 points for East Aurora, which next plays Saturday against rival Neuqua Valley.

South Elgin returns to action Saturday at rival Bartlett.