Storm earns sloppy win over Elk Grove

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:00PM

South Elgin opened its season with a nearly flawless first quarter, but by the end of the night the Storm could hardly get the ball across half court.

In what was a sloppy debut for both teams, South Elgin managed to hold off Elk Grove 48-46 in the first round of the Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving Tournament at Fenton High.

The Storm built a 21-6 lead by the end of the first quarter, but the quick start was nearly undone by serious foul trouble, an ankle injury to sophomore point guard Jake Maestranzi and a whopping 27 turnovers.

Luckily for South Elgin, the Grenadiers had big problems of their own. Elk Grove finished the contest with 19 turnovers, a 30.8 field goal percentage and a woeful 11-for-28 mark at the free-throw line.

"That stuff happens in the game of basketball," said South Elgin senior Sam Sutter, who scored a game high 19 points. "You've got to stay up the whole game, and when the other team makes a run you can't get down. Fortunately we hung in there today."

The Storm never trailed after the game's opening minute, but the pesky Grenadiers didn't go quietly after the slow start and managed to pull within 34-33 by the end of the third quarter.

South Elgin withstood that rally and appeared to have the victory in hand when Eric Stazy split a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left to make the score 47-41. But the Storm's inability to break Elk Grove's full-court press combined with a two-point basket by John Lorenz and a 3-pointer by Justin Flores shrank South Elgin's advantage to 47-46 with seven seconds left.

The Storm struggled getting the ball in bounds following a timeout. One pass was deflected out of bounds by the Grenadiers, and another went to center Matt Downing, who held onto the ball for three seconds before finally drawing a foul with 0:00.8 left. Downing missed his first attempt but made the second, and Elk Grove didn't get a shot off before the final buzzer.

"Coming down the (stretch) we had guys turning the ball over that have played before," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "All we need to do is play fundamental basketball. Let's understand what we need to do on offense to get guys shots and not try to do it all ourselves. We didn't do that tonight, and that's why the score was the way it was."

South Elgin looked unstoppable out of the gate as six of its first seven field goals came on wide-open layups. Sutter scored on a perfectly executed backdoor layup and a breakaway layup, and Matt Downing added a layup on a nifty assist from freshman Darius Wells to highlight a 17-4 run in the game's first 5:30.

Maestranzi's ankle injury midway through the first quarter slowed the attack, and foul trouble in the second half brought South Elgin to a crawl. Starting guard Martin Duarte fouled out in roughly five minutes of action, and Sutter had to watch from the bench for much of the third quarter with four fouls and managed only three points in the second half.

Senior Dillon Gardner helped pick up the slack, finishing with 11 points. Downing added seven points and 11 rebounds. Taft said Maestranzi's status is day-to-day going into tonight's game against Lake Park.

Flores had a team-high 14 points for Elk Grove. Sophomore Austin Amann added nine points and six rebounds.

"Clearly we didn't come out believing we could beat them for whatever reason," Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman said. "Falling behind 21-6 in a quarter, you're just not going to beat good teams spotting that kind of lead. I do think we showed a lot of character coming back, but we've got to have higher expectations from the get go."

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