South Elgin gets its revenge on Bartlett
Obsessed?
Let's just say the South Elgin girls basketball players had been looking forward to Thursday's rematch with rival Bartlett ever since the Hawks pasted them 56-28 on Jan. 27.
That lopsided loss, coupled with the news that leading scorer Bridgette Williams was lost for the season due to knee surgery, forced the Storm to narrow their focus two weeks ago. Coach Dan Mandernack figured his team had two choices.
"It was either throw it in, kind of end up a .500 team, whatever, kind of finish out the year," Mandernack said. "Or put your foot down, stare adversity in the eye, come together.
"And we haven't lost since then. I couldn't be prouder."
South Elgin jumped to an 8-point halftime lead and withstood a second-half Bartlett charge to win 57-49 in the Upstate Eight Valley finale for both teams.
South Elgin (18-9, 10-4) won its fifth straight on Senior Night, powered by seniors Delaney Kelleher (game-high 17 points), Cara Fahey - who sank four 3-pointers in a 14-point performance - and Laura McIntosh (11 points).
The Storm pointed to the earlier embarrassment against the Hawks as motivation.
"Ever since then we've been working 110 percent in practice," Fahey said. "This has been our goal. We've had a lot of games in between, but Bartlett's been our main goal.
Said Kelleher: "That whole time we've been trying so hard at practice, giving it our all. We've always been focused on the next team we've played and we've just kept winning and winning. So once this was finally our main focus, we were so ready for it."
Bartlett (18-9, 11-3) rallied to take the lead twice in the fourth quarter, the last coming on a pair of free throws by junior Kelly Harris with 4:14 left in the game.
However, after South Elgin sophomore Kennedy Wells knotted the score with 2 free throws, Kelleher made a steal and drove the length of the court for the go-ahead basket with 4:05 left. The Storm never relinquished that lead, though Bartlett did slice it to a single point on junior Nicole Gerdevich's inside bucket with 1:15 remaining.
The Storm won it at the defensive end and the free throw line. Not only did they force 6 fourth-quarter Bartlett turnovers, McIntosh drained 2 bonus free throws with 51.5 on the clock and Kelleher followed a Bartlett miss with 2 free throws to make it a 5-point game.
The Storm sank 6 of 7 free throws in the final 51 seconds to match the program's regular season record of 18 victories.
"I couldn't be prouder," Mandernack said. "The seniors just refuse to lose."
Bartlett made only 6 of 24 field goal attempts in scoring 19 first-half points. The Hawks scored 35 first-half points against South Elgin in the Jan. 27 meeting.
"We made a nice run in the third quarter. We just couldn't seem to get anything going," Bartlett coach Denise Sarna said. "We didn't drop many shots. I don't think our shooting percentage was very good. You've got to knock some down. We count on our defense. I think that was the big difference today, we relied on defense and we had some defensive breakdowns. When that happens and you have a cold-shooting night or shots don't fall, you lose a game."
Kaitlin Brohan finished with 14 points, Gerdevich had 10 points and 2 steals, Lauren Janczak finished with 8 points and 4 assists and freshman Kayla Hare added 7 points for Bartlett.