South Elgin nets Fenton tourney title

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BENSENVILLE -- Chaz Taft isn't an easy coach to please, but his South Elgin players managed to accomplish the feat Friday night.

Behind a strong defensive effort and balanced play on offense, the Storm knocked off Naperville Central 49-45 to claim the 23rd Fenton Tournament title and continue the best start in the program's three-year history.

Not only did the triumph serve as an early birthday present for Taft, who turns 31 on Sunday, but it also capped a happy homecoming for the 1996 Fenton graduate.

Taft never participated in a tournament title game during his playing days at Fenton, making the win against nine-time tournament champion Naperville Central all that much sweeter.

"This is awesome," Taft said. "My old high school coach does the score here. My old athletics director is now the head coach at Fenton. So it's great to come back and see these people."

With Northwestern-bound guard Drew Crawford leading the way, the Redhawks seemed poised to repeat as tournament champions when they opened the second half with a 13-3 run to erase a five-point halftime deficit and pull ahead 33-28 with 3:22 left in the third quarter.

However, South Elgin's defense rose to the occasion soon thereafter, holding Naperville Central (3-1) without a point for the next 5:25. In the meantime, the Storm ran off 10 unanswered points to open a 38-33 advantage early in the fourth quarter.

"I thought that was a point where our leaders stepped up and made big plays to get us back in the game," South Elgin senior Alex Sanchez said.

The Storm (4-0) never led by more than five in the final quarter, but managed to hang on thanks to some critical free throws by juniors Sam Jordt and Tommy Childs and senior Jordan Dobler.

The Redhawks didn't help their cause by going 2-for-6 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

"A lot of those (free throws) we missed were one-and-ones, and if we make those it's a one-point game," Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. "But I don't want to take anything away from South Elgin. I thought they played great. They executed like they like to ... they made their free throws down the stretch and kept their composure."

The victory marked yet another strong team effort from South Elgin (4-0), which was without a pair of key players for much of the week.

Senior starter Kyle Osborne left Monday's season opener with a broken left tibia that will keep him sidelined for eight weeks. Senior Josh Smith was also held out all week, but he is expected to return to action in next Friday's Upstate Eight Conference opener against Lake Park.

Despite those absences, the Storm had little trouble filling the void. Childs continued the torrid start to his first varsity season, leading the team with 11 points. Meanwhile, center Dani Lopez posted a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds while senior Jeff Lewis also finished with 10 points.

"A lot of people stepped up," Lopez said. "Everybody is just working hard."

Childs, Lopez and Sanchez were all named to the all-tournament team for South Elgin, which enjoyed a 28-18 rebounding advantage and won Friday despite attempting only 29 shots from the field.

Crawford scored a game-high 23 points and earned tournament MVP honors for the second straight year, but didn't get much help from his teammates on offense as the Redhawks were 19 of 47 from the floor.

"It worked out where we tired (Crawford) out and got his legs shot by the middle of the fourth quarter, and that's what we planned on doing," Taft said. "We knew he was going to get his points. I mean, he's a Division-I player. But it came down to what were the other four guys going to get?"