Boys Basketball: Outside shooting lifts South Elgin to win vs Jacobs

Updated: December 15, 2011 10:10PM

A quick perimeter offense and adept ball movement were the keys to a 46-41 victory for South Elgin against host Jacobs on Thursday night.

Storm point guard Jacob Maestranzi led all scorers with 15 points but it was his ability to cut through the seam of a changing Golden Eagles defense that carried his team.

“I am always looking to help my team get the ‘W’,” said Maestranzi. “We wanted to keep up our defense and limit our turnovers.”

The Storm came out and built an early 7-2 lead with the help of four early turnovers by Jacobs.

However, down just three after one quarter, Jacobs closed the gap behind a long three-ball by Brad Cleveland two minutes into the second quarter.

South Elgin sophomore Darius Wells (11 points) hit a 23-foot three-pointer to help his team to a 24-14 lead at 4:02 in the second quarter. The Storm, 7 of 19 from behind the arc for the game, led at halftime, 31-28.

“When they [Jacobs] went to that zone we really worked it from side to side, the zone just opened up and we had lanes to get to the basket,” said coach Chaz Taft.

South Elgin center Matthew Downing pulled down seven rebounds for the game.

Jacobs guard Bobby Mladenovic led his team with 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting including a late three-pointer in the fourth quarter to bring close its deficit to 39-36.

“We did alot of chasing and they [South Elgin] can break you down if you do that,” said Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle whose team slides to 1-4 overall on the season and has yet to begin Fox Valley Conference play.

South Elgin moves to 5-4 overall, 0-2 in the Upstate Eight Conference. The Storm take on Lake Park at home tomorrow.

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