Elgin topples Batavia again
After a few bumps in the road this season, the Elgin Maroons realized they are not going to play their best basketball if they aren't having fun.
If the Maroons keep playing like they did in a 58-44 win at Batavia on Tuesday, the Maroons will have plenty of fun in the stretch run.
Elgin (12-10, 3-6) forced 14 first-half turnovers against a Batavia team coming off wins over West Aurora and St. Charles North, raced to 13-2 lead in the first four minutes, and never trailed to complete a season sweep of the Bulldogs.
"We've had some bad practices," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "We've had some infighting. We kind of talked to each other this week and said it's either fun or we don't do it. How do you guys want to play? And they said they want to play full court, man, we want to spread the court and play motion. They just came out and played their game. It was nice to see them reward themselves."
Dan Toolsie opened the game with a pullup jumper, Tim Wolf also connected from outside and Roy Panthier hit consecutive baskets for an 8-2 lead. Six-foot-8 Courtese Cooper followed with the first of his four dunks - the other three came as exclamation marks late in the fourth quarter - as the Maroons built a 15-7 lead after a quarter.
Batavia (14-12, 4-5) turned the ball over 6 times in the first quarter, then 8 more in the second to trail 27-19 at halftime.
"Everybody was getting in the passing lanes, helping each other," Cooper said. "More team chemistry, help defense. We got in their face. Their ball-handling isn't amazing so (we were) just getting in their face and taking the ball away from them."
Batavia rallied in the third quarter. Eric Peterson's pass to a backdoor cutting Colin Cheaney started a mini-surge that ended with Peterson drilling a 3-pointer to get the Bulldogs within 40-36 late in the third quarter.
The Maroons' defense picked up again, holding Batavia to one field goal - a Peterson jumper - over the next six minutes, as they pushed their lead to 52-36.
"They have been playing really well," Sitter said. "It was nice to come in on their court and play well. We played the same ball for four quarters. We didn't go in a slump and that's been our problem."
Cooper scored a game-high 25 points. Trevon Morris added 10 points while Toolsie and Reggie Cole both nabbed 4 steals.
Despite 11 rebounds from Cooper, Batavia stayed within 32-31 of the Maroons on the boards. The 18 turnovers hurt, and so did Elgin's advantage shooting 50 percent from the field (23 of 46) compared to Batavia's 28.8 (15 of 52).
"A lot of credit to Elgin," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "They were first to a lot of things. They were first to the offensive boards. They got their hands on a lot of balls defensively. They took us out of rhythm. We didn't play as well as we are capable of but Elgin played really well. It seemed we were always a step behind them."
Peterson led Batavia with 11 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocked shots. Jayden Johnson and Cheaney both added 8 points.
The Bulldogs return to the court Friday trying to rebound against their rival and undefeated Geneva.
"We have a lot of work to do," Nazos said. "We need to get in the gym. There were a lot of things that happened tonight that were exposed by Elgin that we need to work on and get better at."