GLEN ELLYN – Aaron Wafford more than seized his opportunity.
The South Elgin senior slashed to the rim with authority Friday night in Glen Ellyn one minute into the fourth quarter, and the results augured well for the Storm boys basketball team.
In single-handedly outscoring Glenbard South in the fourth quarter, Wafford was truly a difference-maker as the Storm pulled away for a 58-50 Upstate Eight Conference victory.
Terminating one of the few leads the Raiders enjoyed the entire night, Wafford converted a 3-point play and added his second field goal from beyond the arc moments later to accentuate a nine-point unanswered burst to begin the fourth.
Wafford scored half of his game-high 26 points in leading the Storm (6-1, 2-0) to its sixth consecutive victory.
The Raiders are 1-3 overall and 1-2 in the league.
“I just had a real flow on offense,” Wafford said of his knifing 3-point play that gave the Storm the lead for good at 40-39 with 7:01 remaining. “We were looking for the best possible shot.”
The latest South Elgin win was as much a product of court awareness as their turnover-forcing defense down the stretch.
Glenbard South was in the bonus for the last 10-plus minutes of the game.
The Raiders had used free-throw efficiency to climb back into the contest after the Storm used five 3-point possessions to lead by as much as eight points in the first quarter.
Glenbard South, however, would manage only two makes from the line following the Storm picking up their seventh team foul with 2:36 left in the third quarter.
“We switched to a 2-3 zone,” South Elgin coach Brett Johnson said of the decisive tactical decision in the game. “It made it easier for us to not foul.”
“We just played real solid defense,” Wafford said. “We had foul problems in some of our other games.”
Jacob Pettineo (nine points) added a second traditional 3-point play for the Storm in the final quarter as a quarter-opening 19-5 run stretched the South Elgin lead to double digits before twin consolation 3-pointers from Glenbard South made the final score closer.
In addition to failing to exploit the South Elgin foul-issue vulnerabilities, Glenbard South was further undone by turnovers at inopportune times in the fourth.
The Raiders failed to dent the scoring column until midway through the quarter as leading scorer Cade Hardtke was effectively held in check by the Storm.
Shot attempts were too few in number for Hardtke after a third-quarter 3-pointer splashed home.
“It’s still early in our season,” Hardtke said. “This is only our fourth game. We haven’t had the time to practice these types of scenarios.”
Hardtke had a team-high 18 points; Aryton Temcio finished with 11 points, and Louie Esposito added 9 for the Raiders.