Childs guides Storm to victory

BENSENVILLE -- South Elgin showed poise beyond its years in its season opener Monday.

Despite having only three players on the roster with any varsity experience, the Storm overcame a slow start and then withstood a late charge by Naperville Central in a 59-48 triumph in the first round of the Fenton Thanksgiving Tournament.

The meeting marked a rematch of last year's tournament championship game, which South Elgin won. Senior guard Tommy Childs, one of the few returners from last season's Storm squad, shouldered the biggest load this time against the Redhawks with a team-high 25 points.

"We want to do the same thing we did last year, but there's no guarantees," Childs said of defending the tournament title.

"We've got to take it one game at a time. We're not looking past any teams."

South Elgin struggled at the outset, falling behind 7-0 as a starting lineup that included freshman point guard Jake Maestranzi and sophomore center Matt Downing tried to find its way.

The Storm ultimately got on track in the second quarter thanks to its trademark defense. Childs and junior Dillon Gardner both had steals and breakaway layups during an 11-2 run to close the first half that gave South Elgin the lead for good at 30-21 at the intermission.

"I told them coming into this thing to expect air balls, expect some turnovers and expect to do things that you normally wouldn't do in practice because the pressure is on," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "That's why I just let them play through it.

"We take pride in our defense. All our guys know what we're trying to accomplish on the defensive end of the floor. This was a great team effort for us tonight."

The Storm enjoyed a 43-35 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Redhawks managed to pull within four on three occasions in the final four minutes.

South Elgin always had an answer, though, as junior Sam Sutter drilled two of his four 3-pointers down the stretch. The Storm connected on 8 of 19 shots from beyond the arc for the game, but none was bigger than Sutter’s triple with 1:02 left that gave the Storm a 53-46 advantage.

“We’re a good shooting team,” Childs said. “We work on 3’s everyday in practice. We’ve got shooters on our team, so it’s no shock to me (that we shot well).”

Naperville Central got a big effort from senior Matt Neufeld, who tallied a game-high 27 points and eight rebounds. However, the Redhawks couldn’t overcome 18 turnovers, including seven in the second quarter.

“I thought (South Elgin) did a great job of just taking us out of the way we wanted to play,” Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. “Instead of us answering back and directing what we wanted to do, we played their game.”

SOUTH ELGIN 59, NAPERVILLE CENTRAL 48

South Elgin (1-0)

Childs 8 8-8 25, Sutter 4 0-0 12, Jordt 3 0-0 7, Downing 2 3-4 7, Menken 2 0-0 6, Gardner 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 11-12 59.

Naperville Central (0-1)

Neufeld 13 1-3 27, Czarnowski 3 1-2 7, Linne 2 0-0 6, Niggins 2 2-2 6, Schremp 0 2-2 2, Brate 0 0-2 0.

South Elgin            16  14   9   20   --  59

Naperville Central 14    7  12   15   --  48