Streamwood treats alumni to convincing win
It was Alumni Day at Streamwood Saturday afternoon, and the current Sabres treated the graduated Sabres to a convincing win.
Senior Hannah McGlone had 19 points, 16 rebounds and 6 blocks as Streamwood rolled to a 55-35 Upstate Eight River girls basketball win over Elgin.
But while the 6-foot McGlone did what McGlone usually does — score, rebound and block shots — it was Streamwood junior point guard Kianah Jeremiah who set the tone in the first half and got the Elgin defense extended so that the Sabres could work their inside-outside game to its maximum effectiveness.
Jeremiah scored 9 of her 14 points in the first half as the Sabres (10-10, 5-4) led 35-19 at halftime and never looked back.
“I had a period where I was going backwards but I'm starting to feel comfortable again with my ballhandling and my shot and my teammates are helping me out a lot,” said Jeremiah, who also had 4 steals. “I try to make sure I handle the ball, hit outside shots, drive and kick it out. I hope it's helping my team.”
It is definitely doing that, according to Streamwood coach George Rosner, whose team won its third straight in getting back to .500 for the season.
“She's really focused on being a good point guard,” Rosner said of Jeremiah. “She's handling the ball and setting things up. She was locked in there for awhile today and we were trying to do as much inside-outside as we could.”
Elgin (6-14, 1-6) showed some signs of life in the third quarter and cut its deficit to 40-28 on a Maggie Powers basket with 2:31 left in the quarter but Streamwood went on a 7-0 run to end the period and Elgin didn't come closer than 16 the rest of the way.
Elgin coach Dr. Nick Bumbales was hit with back-to-back technical fouls and ejected from the game with 5:37 left in the first half. By IHSA rule he must now sit out the Maroons' next game as well, scheduled for Tuesday night at Bartlett, weather permitting.
“I haven't been ejected in 33 years and that's about 1,000 games on the bench,” said Bumbales, who praised the efforts of assistant coach Mike Stanton in his absence. “All I was trying to do was protect our players.
“Hats off to George and his girls. They're playing well. Hannah is playing real well. She's one of the best players they've had.”
Senior Holly Foret and freshman Jenejha Williams added 8 points each for the Sabres. The 6-foot-2 Wiliams also had 12 rebounds as Streamwood owned the glass, 46-32.
“Last time we played (Elgin) we gave up 50 points so we did a much better job defensively today,” said Rosner. “Our goal this week was to get to 10 wins, so now we make new goals for next week.”
Powers and senior Melanie Berg led Elgin with 10 points each.