Hall reaches 1,000-point milestone in Glenbard East win at South Elgin

An individual milestone for senior DaRon Hall lifted the Glenbard East boys basketball team to a collective achievement at South Elgin on Tuesday.

The Upstate Eight Conference leaders blew a 12-point, third-quarter lead, but Hall scored 10 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter - highlighted by his 1,000th varsity point - to fuel the Rams' 43-42 road victory.

Upset-minded South Elgin (5-11, 2-4) closed the third quarter on a 17-4 run to take a 34-33 lead and grabbed a 38-35 advantage on a running bank shot by Drew Cwik midway through the fourth.

However, Hall personally outscored the Storm 8-4 thereafter to propel Glenbard East (10-4, 6-0). The 6-foot-1 guard sank a pair of free throws to draw the Rams within 40-39 with 2:28 to play.

The Storm enjoyed possession with 1:17 remaining until it dribbled the ball out of bounds unforced for its 15th turnover.

Sitting on 998 points with his team trailing by a point with one minute left, Hall drove from the perimeter past two defenders and scored on a left-handed layup. The bucket gave him 1,000 points and staked Glenbard East to the lead for good.

"It was a designed play to me," Hall said. "Just get the ball in the bucket to get us up by one. And that's what I did."

"We tried to run somebody at him to make him give up the ball and there was a miscommunication," South Elgin coach Brett Johnson said. "Our goal was to make somebody else beat us. He had a great game. He got to the line and made double-digit free throws."

Hall sank 13 free throws in 15 attempts.

Cwik, who led South Elgin with 13 points, missed a 3-pointer at the other end and Joe Hamilton snared the defensive rebound.

Hall was fouled and sank two more free throws with 19.1 seconds left to make it a 43-40 lead.

A pair of Wyatt Steurer free throws drew the Storm within a point with 4.1 seconds left. It had one last chance after the Rams missed a free throw with 2.9 seconds to play, but a desperation heave from beyond midcourt by Kendis Wiley fell short.

"It's a good road win, a gutty one," Glenbard East coach Scott Miller said. "I'm real proud of our guys."

Hall reflected on the personal milestone after the victory.

"It's a great accomplishment," he said after shooting 7 of 15 from the field. "My teammates got me open a lot, I got the ball a lot, I started shooting a lot and I started feeling it toward the end."