Storm's Lewis comes through with clutch FTs

DEKALB -- South Elgin's Jeffrey Lewis stood at the foul line with the season on the line against DeKalb Wednesday night, and it was "Swish City."

Lewis got fouled on a putback attempt with two seconds to play and hit nothing but twine on both free throws as DeKalb fans screamed like it was a rock concert. The foul shots gave South Elgin a 61-60 lead and the Storm survived a Class 4A DeKalb Regional semifinal thriller, 63-61, to make Friday's final against top-seeded St. Charles North.

"I was pretty confident," said Lewis, a 5-foot-10 senior forward. "It just comes from practice.

"My teammates were coming up while I was at the line and telling me it's just like a drill we do every day in practice that's called Swish City. You just shoot free throws and basically knock them down and that's what I did."

After the free throws, third-seeded DeKalb tried getting a court-length pass to 6-foot-10 center Jordan Threloff, but Jordan Dobler intercepted it and was fouled. He made 1 of 2 free throws and a court-length desperation shot didn't come close as the Storm improved to 19-8 on the year despite giving up 39 points to Threloff.

"He did a great job tonight," Lewis said about Threloff, who made 16 of 19 from the field and pulled down 15 rebounds. "It's like coach says; he says when we play talented people like that it's OK if that one person goes off, it's about how you stop the supporting cast. And I think we did a good job of stopping the supporting cast."

No one else scored more than seven for the Barbs (16-11), who looked like they would be winners after the fifth lead change of the fourth quarter. Darius McNeal drilled two foul shots after the Storm's Alex Sanchez got whistled for a foul along the sideline with 23 seconds remaining.

Then Threloff looked to have won the game for the Barbs when he blocked a Dobler 6-foot shot but the ball came to Lewis under the hoop and, "I was pulled from behind when I went up with it," he said. "There was no doubt it was a foul."

South Elgin blew a 15-point third-quarter lead but hung on behind 20 points from Dobler and a season-high 20 points from Kyle Osborne.

It was Osborne who rescued the Storm from an early 14-5 deficit -- with all 14 coming from Threloff. Osborne canned 5 of 8 first-half 3-point tries and had six for the game.

"They were just sitting back in a zone," Osborne said. "My teammates just kept feeding the ball."

Osborne had missed almost all the season with a broken foot.

"This is actually his seventh game of the year now," said South Elgin coach Chaz Taft. "The thing I credit Kyle with was he was always in the gym shooting, taking shots while all the other guys were getting reps in practice. He stayed at it."

The Storm didn't have 6-foot-9 center Dani Lopez due to the lower leg injury suffered in mid-February, and without a starter taller than 6-1, Threloff eventually started to hurt them after they built a 41-26 lead with 4:58 to play in the third quarter. But he got into foul trouble.

"We just couldn't get that fourth foul on him -- they did a good job of keeping him in the game," Taft said.

Osborne hit one last big 3-pointer with 35 seconds left with his team down 59-57 before McNeal got charged going up the sidelines.

BOX SCORE

SOUTH ELGIN 63, DEKALB 61 

DeKalb (16-11) McNeal 2 3-4 7, Larson 2 0-0 5, Donnelly 1 2-2 4, Olsen 1 0-0 2, Threloff 16 7-10 39, Rourke 1 2-2 4. Totals 23 13-18 61. South Elgin (19-8) Sanchez 1 6-8 8, Dobler 8 3-5 20, Lewis 3 3-4 10, Stade 1 2-2 4, Smith 0 1-2 1, Osborne 6 2-2 20. Totals 19 17-23 63. DeKalb      18  6  15 22 -- 61 South Elgin 16 15 16 16 -- 63

3-Point Goals -- DK(2): Larson, Donnelly. SE (8): Osborne 6, Dobler, Lewis. Fouled out -- DK: Threloff.