Girls Basketball: South Elgin starts fast, cruises past Jacobs
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: November 29, 2011 9:59PM
As tuneups for big games go, South Elgin couldn’t have been happier with the first half of Tuesday night’s 75-42 nonconference homecourt win over Jacobs.
And then came the second half.
“We got off to a really good start offensively,” coach Tim Prendergast said. “We did things that I know we’re capable of doing, shooting the ball and transition. We played to our strength and we have a lot of good shooters.
“Then the second half was kind of frustrating.”
South Elgin (5-1) made 11 of its shots from the field in the first quarter and went on to the easy win behind 18 points from Becca Smith and 15 by reserve sharpshooter Alexa Matison.
The Storm can only hope to play the way it did in the first quarter Wednesday night in an Upstate Eight Valley opener at Waubonsie Valley.
Smith had seven points in Tuesday’s first quarter, guard Savanah Uveges had five assists and four points then and Matison hit for seven points, including two of her three treys on the night.
South Elgin led 27-7 after one quarter.
“I know we can score against anybody,” Prendergast said. “We have got to play D.”
In the second half, Jacobs came out on fire with a 10-1 run and expanded it to a 14-3 run before South Elgin got back in control of the game.
“It was a lack of defense on our part,” Smith said. “Definitely it’s something we have to clean up.”
Jacobs (0-4) had made 3 of 19 from the floor in the first half, then hit 8-of-9 in the third quarter.
“You’re not going to go out and beat a team 80-10,” Prendergast said. “They had a nice run to start the second half and we didn’t get any resistance on them.”
Jacobs had 10 points and eight rebounds from Jessica Tennant and a team-high 12 points from Lauren Grady.
South Elgin wound up making 18-of-33 from the floor in the first half but 12-of-34 the second half.
“For three nights in a row now we’ve seen all zone defenses,” Prendergast said. “We won’t see much of it in conference — just every now and then.”
Waubonsie last year presented South Elgin with a strange set of circumstances. So the Storm will be wary.
“We lost to them by 40 points,” Smith said. “Then we turned around and beat them by 15. If we can go in there with a defensive mindset, then we’ll be OK.”
Smith will not be matched up on one of Waubonsie Valley’s better players, Becky Williford. The Warriors point guard is recovering from knee surgery.
“They’ve got four girls who can play D-I, but she’s one of them,” Prendergast said.
Amanda Behles and Uveges finished with eight points each for South Elgin, which made seven three-pointers on the night.
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