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South Elgin falls to Homewood-Flossmoor

Dan Mandernack is just looking for positives at this point.

The South Elgin girls basketball coach found a few, despite an ugly final score. The bad news: Homewood-Flossmoor used its relentless full-court pressure to build a 43-8 halftime lead and went on to defeat the Storm 59-21 in the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament Friday night.

But there was some good news.

The Storm hung in there despite facing their second straight state-caliber team in the tournament, following an opening loss to Rockton Hononegah.

"Great body language, the girls are being great teammates, being coachable," said Mandernack. We come right back in the morning, so I jokingly said, 'Tomorrow, we play a "normal" team. Crystal Lake South, they're a lot like us. They're going to be good, their coach does a good job, but kind of get back to some normalcy.

"We'll battle through. It's a long season, there's going to be ups and downs, and how are we going to handle this situation. Are we going to hang our heads, are we going to pout, are they going to be uncoachable? And they've been fantastic."

The Storm return to action quickly, facing the Gators in a 10 a.m. game Saturday.

The Vikings led 21-2 after one quarter. Their defense was so stifling that the Storm struggled at times to even inbound the ball. The Vikings forced 31 first-half turnovers, while rolling to a 35-point halftime lead, never easing up on the pressure defense.

Offensively, Aireal Dickson scored 22 points in less than 3 quarters. She was the only player on either team to reach double figures.

Megan McClure and Miah Galvin led South Elgin with 5 points apiece.

But the Storm won't settle for moral victories forever.

"We had a record-breaking season last year, won conference, and we're really excited about this year," said Mandernack. "Against two teams like that, we're going to learn, we're going to get better. But now, it's not just about learning, it's about correcting the mistakes, because now we're seeing the mistakes over and over again."

McClure added 6 rebounds for the Storm, who were outrebounded 24-13.

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