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Lynch's putback lifts South Elgin past Waubonsie

South Elgin forward Julian Lynch's hard-fought offensive rebound and putback with 2.9 seconds left to beat Waubonsie Valley on Thursday was no fluke, according to Storm coach Matt Petersen.

"He was doing that all game," Petersen said of the 6-foot-1 junior, who finished with 15 points and 6 rebounds in the Storm's 48-47 Upstate Eight Valley win.

"That's why he ended up leading us in scoring. This is the most aggressive he's been, and he made the biggest play of the game for us just because he was working so hard and being aggressive."

Lynch's big effort was exactly what the short-handed Storm needed to overcome the young, determined Warriors, who took the lead with 21 seconds to play when Chris Karkazis raced up the court and dished a bounce pass to junior Mark Rullo along the baseline for a layup.

South Elgin came up the court without calling a timeout. The Storm got the ball to leading 3-point shooter Justin Howard, but his 3-point attempt from the top of the arc with eight seconds left caught the front of the rim and bounced back toward the lane.

Enter Lynch.

"I pushed the defender underneath the rim, trying to get him as far beneath the rim as possible," he said. "Then break off and attack the ball and try to get it up and into the air as fast as possible.

Waubonsie Valley coach Chaz Taft called timeout with 2.9 left to draw up a response. The Warriors inbounded and dribbled up the right sideline but the ballhandler stepped out of bounds near midcourt with .9 remaining.

South Elgin triggered the ball into Howard and ran out the clock to seal the victory. The Storm improved to 3-4, 1-2. Waubonsie Valley's third straight loss dropped its record to 2-5, 0-3.

The Warriors outrebounded the Storm 26-20 and shot 16 of 33 from the field (48. 5 percent), but they turned the ball over 18 times, including twice in the final 2:42. Trailing 46-45, they threw it out of bounds with 56 seconds to play. South Elgin did the same with 26 seconds left.

"Coming down the stretch we just can't have those turnovers," Taft said. "Our half-court offense, we've been executing it pretty well in practice and in games, getting the shots that we want. I thought we missed a lot of key guys coming off our backscreen in our offense in the first half. I thought guys had both hands up and they're not even throwing them the ball."

Rullo was the main weapon for the Warriors. The 6-1 junior guard scored 14 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, including the go-ahead bucket with 21 seconds left. But he didn't get much help down the stretch. Senior Logan Yanisch scored all 10 of his points and grabbed 7 of his 9 rebounds in the first half and none of the other Warriors managed more than one field goal after halftime. Waubonsie was limited to 15 shot attempts in the second half, which set the stage for Lynch to win a low-scoring game.

"It's a great feeling, one of the best feelings I've ever had as a high school basketball player," Lynch said.

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