Elgin handles Batavia
After pleading with his team to play a complete 32 minutes, Elgin coach Mike Sitter loved what he saw when the Maroons did just that Friday night at Batavia.
Elgin scored the game’s first 7 points in less than two minutes, forced turnovers on Batavia’s first three possessions and led by 14 points after just eight minutes. The Bulldogs never got within 8 points the rest of the night as Elgin cruised to a 58-41 lead to maintain its share of first place in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division.
“Coach tells us before every game we need to take it from the tipoff,” Elgin junior Kory Brown said. “We took it into consideration this game and got it done.”
Elgin (14-5, 6-2) remains tied with St. Charles North (11-9, 6-2) for first place. Those teams meet next Friday in Elgin while Batavia (10-9, 5-4) fell two games behind in the loss column.
“I think from the opening tip to the final buzzer that’s our best game of the year,” Sitter said. “We kept up the pressure and took them out of what they want to do offensively.”
The 6-foot-4 Brown joined 6-3 Gerardo Mojica inside battling Batavia’s 6-6 Elliot Vaughn and 6-5 Cole Gardner. They got plenty of help from Elgin’s guards pressuring Batavia’s backcourt making every entry pass a challenge.
“I’ll give it to Batavia, they have great big men in their low post, but we’ve been working, we double teamed and help side and talked to each other,” Brown said. “We had each others’ backs.”
Gardner led Batavia with 12 points and 10 rebounds making 6 of 7 shots. The rest of the Bulldogs shot just 12 of 39 (30.7 percent).
“We struggled (shooting),” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. “We want to try to get the ball inside as much as possible but they made it difficult the majority of the ballgame.”
Four players in Elgin’s lineup have at least 25 3-pointers this year. The Maroons came out blazing making 4 of 5 beyond the arc in the opening quarter for a 20-6 lead.
Batavia outscored Elgin 12-8 in the second quarter to trail 28-18 at halftime. Zach Strittmatter’s putback opened the third quarter pulled Batavia within double digits, which Williams answered with a 3-pointer and the Bulldogs never seriously dented the Maroons’ lead the remainder of the game — a contrast to how competitive the teams were in the first meeting, a 59-54 Elgin win.
Jordan Dean and Arie Williams both finished with 3 3-pointers. Dean led all scorers with 17 points, Brown had 14 points and 13 rebounds, Williams scored 11 points and Mojica 10.
“I’ve been doing bad the last couple games so it was great to come in, get my shot back and help the team,” Dean said. “I got a lot of open looks.”
Elgin led 42-30 after three quarters. Roberts pulled his starters with three minutes left. That gave Derek Strohmaier the chance to score Elgin’s final 4 points, and John Douglas (5 points) and Matt Tevonian (2 points) to score the Bulldogs’ final 7 points of what was a disappointing loss in their bid to catch Elgin the conference standings.
“It was a big game for us,” Vaughn said. “Our start was pretty bad. It was some of the worst ball (we’ve played). We didn’t come out with the right mindset and the right intensity.”