South Elgin stops Waubonsie Valley
South Elgin turned up the defensive intensity at Waubonsie Valley Friday night.
Coach Matt Petersen's squad built up a 15-point halftime lead as they limited the Warriors to just one second-quarter field goal and forced 10 first-half turnovers, leading to a 68-48 win over the Warriors in an Upstate Eight Valley contest.
"Our No. 1 goal was to at least limit (Waubonsie Valley's Chris) Karkazis and he had 0 points in the first half," Petersen said. "Then we wanted to take away the 3-point shots of (Jack Connolly) and (Brian Phillips) and neither of them hit one in the first half. We adhered to the defensive responsibilities and that's what led us to get a big lead."
Waubonsie Valley (7-13, 2-8) took its last lead of the night after a rebound basket by JaQuan Bowman put the Warriors up 12-10 late in the first quarter.
After South Elgin's Matty Smith split a pair of free throws, his teammate Damien Young followed with a steal and fastbreak layup to put the Storm up 13-12 at the end of one quarter, which gave his team the lead the rest of the way.
Waubonsie Valley went without a field goal for the first 4:22 of the second quarter as South Elgin (8-13, 3-5) built a 12-point lead on the strength of a 14-0 run.
Smith's jumper off the backboard put the Storm up 24-12, but Waubonsie Valley's Jack Connolly knocked down two free throws for the Warriors' first points of the second quarter, ending the South Elgin run.
The Storm outscored its opponent 19-5 in the second quarter and built its lead up to 20 by the end of the third quarter.
A 3-pointer by Logan Atkins with 4:55 left in the game gave South Elgin its biggest lead at 62-39.
"Earlier in the year, we would give up two or three buckets and teams would go on a 5- to 7-point run," Petersen said. "We played Metea Valley before Christmas and we were up 12-11 with about two minutes left in the first quarter. We were down 25-12 at the end of the first quarter."
Three South Elgin players finished in double figures including Tyler Hankins with 17 points, Atkins with 17 and Smith had 14.
"(South Elgin) did a good job of guarding the ball and I thought they did a good job of taking away the passing lanes," Waubonsie Valley coach Chaz Taft said. "We didn't go to our pressure releases in our offense. We just dribbled around and dribbled to an occupied post. (South Elgin) came out and challenged our guards and their ballhandling and sureness with the basketball."