Lemont upends South Elgin
South Elgin never figured out how to contain Lemont's potent front line duo of senior Paul O'Leary and junior Nate Ferguson.
The bruising 6-foot-9 O'Leary poured in a game-high 29 points and grabbed 7 rebounds while Ferguson notched a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds as the No. 8 seeded Indians upset the top-seeded Storm 61-56 in Thursday night's quarterfinal of the 90th Annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic hosted by DeKalb.
Junior guard Drake Montgomery kept the Storm in contention by knocking down four 3-pointers in a stellar 23-point performance, while Vince Miszkiewicz contributed 9 points and 12 rebounds.
Lemont (8-4) advanced to Friday's semifinal against Mundelein (8-3) while South Elgin (7-3) dropped down to the fifth place bracket and will face host DeKalb at 3:15 p.m.
"Our goal was to not let O'Leary and Ferguson win the game and they ended up scoring 49 of their 61 points," said Storm coach Brett Johnson. "After halftime, we stepped it up and guarded and locked down on them, but then I think the physicality of the game and the size that they had took over."
"Defensively we tried to game plan before the game, but those big guys know how to play, so it was tough," Montgomery added.
Trailing 33-27 at the half, South Elgin came out with more defensive intensity and forced 8 Lemont turnovers in the third quarter. Noah Rohr, Latrell Lamarca and Montgomery all connected on 3-pointers as the Storm took its largest lead of the game at 43-39.
"We definitely got the momentum in the third quarter," Montgomery said. "We came out of the locker room saying push the ball and get as many points as we can."
Montgomery's driving layup gave the Storm its final lead at 54-53 with 2:10 left, but O'Leary split a pair of free throws then put Lemont in front for good with a basket off the glass with: 44 remaining.
The Storm committed a pair of turnovers and Jaxson Dian hit four straight clutch free throws for the Indians to seal the win.
"I thought we played really hard, but toward the end of the game we couldn't execute our offense crisply and correctly. They were able to take advantage of it and go down and score when they needed it," Johnson said.
Lemont's size forced the Storm to play primarily from the perimeter, as they connected on 10-of-31 attempts from 3-point range and shot 37 percent from the field overall.
"Their size affected us. We were kind of timid to take it into the lane," Montgomery said.
"That was our lowest shooting percentage of the year," Johnson said. "When you rely on outside shots and they're not going, it's hard to win games."
Rohr finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds for South Elgin while Kyle Sy added 6 points.
"I think this game going to help us down the road as we play other teams with big front lines because now we know how to guard them," Johnson said. "Lemont's a quality team and they have a good chance to win this tournament."