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South Elgin earns first conference championship

Third-year South Elgin girls basketball coach Dan Mandernack has been asking his players the same question all season.

Do they want to be average, good or great?

On Friday night with the Upstate Eight Valley title in the balance, the Storm chose great.

Avenging its last loss, a 60-46 defeat at West Aurora on Jan. 13, South Elgin won its seventh straight game and clinched its first Upstate Eight title in girls basketball outright by knocking off the visiting Blackhawks 64-44.

Senior guard Teagan Pompa scored 16 points, senior center Mackie Kelleher had 14 points, senior forward Grace Franks finished with 13 points and senior guard Emmy McIntosh added 11 points in a balanced attack for South Elgin (18-7, 8-1).

"We were looking forward to this night for a while," Pompa said. "It's awesome. I can't describe it. It's just really cool, especially since our school is so young. And we owe it to everybody that came before us, all the great players and coaches that came before us. This is for them, too. They really started everything and we were just piggybacking on them."

Unlike the first meeting in which the Storm had trouble breaking the West Aurora press, South Elgin handled it consistently. That allowed the offense to get in rhythm early. Pompa and Kelleher combined for 21 first-half points and McIntosh drained three 3-pointers to vault the Storm to a 37-22 halftime lead.

"The difference was we knew how to handle the pressure," Kelleher said. "The first game we just weren't used to their pressure. They're a really good defensive team and they know how to pressure. But after that loss at practice we started working on how to break the press and it really paid off because we did well in the game."

South Elgin sophomore guard Casey Brennan scored 5 third-quarter points and Franks scored 7 points in the second half, 5 from the free-throw line.

Kiyanna Rodgers had 10 points and 6 rebounds, Skylar Doby scored 8 points and Dajour Miles and Essence Rayford contributed 6 points apiece for West Aurora (11-11, 6-3).

"For us to be on this 7-game winning streak, our arrow is pointing up," Mandernack said. "I'm just really proud. They really had that look in their eyes tonight: refuse to lose, win your individual battles. I told them before the game 'Average, good or great, you guys are beyond that. You're special, win or lose tonight.' And they made us really proud."

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