South Elgin stays hot, stymies St. Edward
After a shaky 0-3 start to the season the South Elgin girls basketball team has gone on a roll with 4 straight wins and junior Megan McClure has played an instrumental role.
The Storm's latest win was a 58-37 blowout at St. Edward in nonconference action on Saturday night. While McClure didn't quite match the 33 points she put up against Larkin on Friday the versatile 5-foot-9 guard filled up the stat sheet nonetheless with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks.
"She's a coach's dream," South Elgin coach Dan Mandernack said. "She can play all five positions and her basketball IQ is off the charts. She's a great leader on the court and she's unselfish and humble. This year she has really improved her ballhandling and is pushing the ball up the court more. She's the heart and soul of our team."
McClure set the tone early with 8 points in the first quarter as the Storm jumped out on top 14-2 lead. McClure scored in a variety ways with a drive to the basket, a transition layup off a steal, a medium range jumper, and a short turnaround jumper in the post. She would later add a 3-pointer and then a 3-point play on an isolation drive to the bucket.
"My strength in the past has been driving to the basket," McClure said. "But I have worked a lot on my jumper to add to my game and plus I got stronger so I could work more down low, too. But honestly I can't do anything without my teammates. I trust them. I know if I dish off to them they are going to make a play and they do a great job of getting me the ball too."
The Storm's lead was trimmed to 25-19 by halftime, but they broke open the game in the third quarter, outscoring St. Edward 17-4 to go up 42-23. Caroline Croft and Madison Waichunas both knocked down 3-pointers in the third quarter run.
"We said at halftime we need to come out and win the first 3 minutes," Mandernack said. "And we did. We made some adjustments and got some good looks off some set plays. But at the end of the day the defense is really what did it. We take a lot of pride in playing strong aggressive defense. We play a lot of road games this year and defense always travels well. You are not always going to have your shot in someone else's gym, but you can always bring strong defense."
Waichunas finished with 11 points for the Storm. Ella Winterhalder added 8 points.
The Green Wave continue to struggle through some growing pains as they fell to 1-5. Brooke Biggins and Sam Ottinger each had 7 points. Coach Michelle Dawson also pointed out the play of Mia Castro at point guard as a big positive.
"It's certainly not for a lack of effort because the girls are really playing hard," Dawson said. "We just don't have the experience and chemistry we need yet. It will come with time. We are going to continue to work on cutting down our turnovers and communicating on the court. Tonight South Elgin has multiple players who can hurt you and we just struggled to match up with them."