East Aurora's zone defense smothers Elgin

After devoting a lot of practice time to beating the East Aurora 2-3 zone, Elgin was feeling pretty confident entering Friday night's game.

The Maroons' confidence picked up as they picked apart the Tomcats' man-to-man defense taking an early 13-4 lead. But as soon as East Aurora switched to its zone, Elgin was left searching for answers. The Tomcats' defensive pressure smothered Elgin as it fell 71-60 in Upstate Eight Conference boys basketball action at Chesbrough Field House in Elgin.

"We practiced against the 2-3 and we did a pretty good job, but in the game we got star struck," Elgin guard Arie Williams said. "We wanted to get movement. East Aurora is very quick. We had to move the ball quickly and our shots were quick."

Williams, who finished with 13 points, nailed a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter as Elgin (4-16, 0-8) went up 18-16 at the end of the period.

But the after Elgin led 13-4, after Williams connected on his first 3-pointer with 3:19 left in the first quarter, East Aurora (12-7, 5-0) took over.

Correction, Snoop Viser took over.

Viser had to pick up a big chunk of the scoring with stars Ryan Boatright (ankle sprain) and Tramell Weathersby (missed school) out of the lineup Friday night. He responded by nailing four 3-pointers during a 35-10 run to close out the first half. Viser (18 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists) led a 55.1 percent (16 of 29) East Aurora shooting effort in the first half. The Tomcats got a game-high 20 points from Gio Padilla, who connected on three 3-pointers in the game as well.

"We did an outstanding job passing the ball," East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. "(Padilla) didn't force any shots. Gio really stepped it up."

Elgin shot 50 percent (7 of 14) in the first quarter, but went nearly 8 minutes from the end of the first quarter until the end of the second quarter without hitting a field goal. The Maroons were just 1 of 10 from the floor in the second quarter and were outscored 23-5 in the period.

Things weren't much better in the third as Elgin put up 11 points and trailed 58-34 at the end of the period.

The Tomcats' zone also gave East Aurora a 34-20 advantage on the glass, with Keenan McGhee finishing with 10 rebounds and 9 points.

"Their zone allowed (McGhee) to stay under the rim," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "When they went to that zone, the game was over. We stopped getting second looks."

When East Aurora switched back to a man defense, Elgin racked up 26 fourth-quarter points, outscoring the Tomcats 26-13 in the final period. Williams scored 5 points and sophomore Kory Brown put up 11 of his 13 points in the final period.