Streamwood stuns South Elgin; Rosner notches win No. 400 with Sabres
Streamwood's girls basketball team came into Thursday night's Class 4A Larkin regional championship game against top-seeded South Elgin with one collective thought.
Why not?
"We work so hard together, we just figured why not win a regional championship. I just wanted it so bad. A lot of people didn't think we could beat South Elgin," said Sabres' senior standout Jenejha Williams.
So that's what the Sabres went out and did.
Behind a career high-tying 30 points, 25 rebounds and 7 blocked shots from the 6-foot-3 Williams, No. 5 Streamwood stunned South Elgin 59-47 to advance to Monday's Hampshire sectional semifinal against the winner of Friday night's Harlem regional final between Hononegah and Rockford East.
Thursday's win was also the 400th career victory at Streamwood for longtime Sabres coach George Rosner, an IBCA Hall of Famer, who now has 432 career wins including his five seasons at Palatine.
"A lot of people didn't think we could win this game," said Rosner, whose team won its first regional title since 2013. "We believed. That's the best team basketball I've seen them play and one of our biggest wins.
"Four-hundred. That's a lot. It feels good. I really wanted to get it at Streamwood."
The Sabres (16-13) took control of a close game midway through the second quarter and used a stifling defense, Williams' intimidation in the paint and a cold shooting night by South Elgin (21-8) to keep the Storm at bay throughout the second half.
Trailing 15-12 after a basket by the Storm's Grace Frank with 4:35 left in the second quarter, Streamwood went on a 10-0 run to close out the half. Williams nailed one of her four 3-pointers at the halftime buzzer to put the Sabres up 22-15 at the break. South Elgin failed to score in the final 4:35 of the period.
Despite its cold shooting - the Storm was 19 of 66 for the night - South Elgin stayed close through most of the third quarter and trailed just 36-33 after 2 free throws from Franks with 2:16 left in the quarter. But the Sabres closed out the quarter with an 8-2 spurt and took a 44-35 lead when Williams put back a missed shot at the buzzer. She had 12 of her 30 points in the third.
The fourth quarter belonged to the Sabres, who led by as many as 14, 55-41, with 4:52 to play. South Elgin did cut the deficit to 55-47 on a Teagan Pompa basket with 2:05 left but the Storm failed to score after that while Streamwood made 4 of 5 free throws down the stretch for the final margin.
"The most important part was keeping our lead. We've had problems doing that," said Williams, who then added about her coach, "Rosner has meant the world to me. He has been so patient with me and he's helped me so much to develop as a player and a person."
Freshman point guard Mandy Mien added 10 points for the Sabres and ran the offense efficiently against South Elgin's press.
"My point guard was amazing. She never cracked and played with great poise," said Rosner. "And J was just a monster tonight. She was a dominant post player. After four years she really wanted it. This was a great team win for us."
Junior Maddi Exline added 11 points for Streamwood while senior Mackie Kelleher led South Elgin with 19 points and 8 rebounds. Franks added 13 for the Storm, who made just 2 of 17 shots from beyond the arc.
"Williams is a Division I athlete and she brought her game to a new level tonight," said South Elgin coach Dan Mandernack, whose team set a program record for wins in a season. "We haven't trailed at halftime in a month and a half and for us to only have 15 points at halftime is unbelievable. Give Streamwood credit. They played really good defense on us.
"We accomplished a lot this season. We won our first conference championship and went undefeated at home. I'll never forget these kids the rest of my life."