Elgin survives scare from D-C; Neuqua, Meadows post wins
Elgin boys basketball coach Mike Sitter jokingly said after Wednesday's night first-round game at the 33rd annual Pepsi/Daily Herald Elgin Holiday Tournament against Dundee-Crown that the school should refund everyone's admission.
"It's not just me. All the coaches and the 15 players are all disappointed," Sitter said after the Maroons held on to beat the Chargers, 46-45. "Up on the board it says, 'Final Christmas tournament for the seniors.' This is not the way they wanted to play. If they come out and play this way the rest of the tournament, it's going to be a long, painful experience."
The Maroons (6-4) play Batavia, a 72-58 winner over Larkin, at 8 p.m. tonight in the quarterfinals. The Chargers (4-4) face Larkin at 1:30 p.m. in consolation bracket play.
Elgin's pressure defense turned a tie game against Dundee-Crown into what appeared to be a rout before the Chargers turned a rout into a nail-biter.
The teams were tied 13-13 after the first quarter and D-C held a 15-14 lead 1:30 into the second. The Maroons responded with a 9-0 run, holding the Chargers scoreless for more than 5½ minutes, to take a 23-15 lead. The advantage was 23-17 at halftime.
D-C was held to 4 points on 2 of 6 shooting and committed 4 turnovers in the quarter.
"Elgin did a great job of pressuring, and we didn't respond very well," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "Hopefully we can learn from that."
The turnovers started to mount for the Chargers in the third quarter. They turned the ball over 9 times and went 4-for-15 from the field, helping the Maroons to two seperate 7-0 runs in the quarter. Elgin, which didn't turn the ball over in the quarter, led 39-25 after the third quarter.
But the Chargers started chipping away at the lead, scoring the first 6 points of the quarter to cut the deficit to 39-30, with 6:15 remaining. A steal, layup and free throw by the Chargers' David Bernard with 1:14 left made the score 41-35.
A Justin Strzelczyk 3-pointer cut the deficit to 43-38 with 50 seconds remaining. Armani Williams hit 2 free throws to increase the lead back to 7 at 45-38. Jeff Beck hit a 3-pointer to make it a 4-point game, 45-41. Elgin's Derell Howse hit a free throw with 14.7 seconds left. D-C's Charles Kimbrough hit 1 of 2 free throws with 5.5 seconds to keep it a two-possession game at 46-42. After Elgin missed 2 free throws, Strzelczyk threw up a wild shot from half court that went off the backboard and in to make the final, 46-45.
"The third quarter we did what we had to do, but we relaxed," Williams said. "They came back. Luckily we won."
Williams led all scorers with 20 points. D'Angelo Stewart added 5 points for Elgin.
Strzelcyzk's 16 points, 9 in the fourth quarter, led the Chargers. Beck added 8.
Neuqua Valley 70, Waukegan 61: Neuqua Valley defeated Waukegan in the first game Wednesday at the Elgin Holiday Tournament. Anton Wilkins and Derek Raridon each had a game-high 20 points for the Warriors. Dan Pawelski added 16 points.
Jereme Richmond led Waukegan with a game-high 20 points as well.
Highland Park 53, Downers Grove North 49: Highland Park came out on top against Downers Grove North with the help of Chris Wroblewski's game-high 17 points. Tellef Lundevall contributed 12 points.
Downers Grove North was led by Deon Thomas, scoring 11 points, while Tom Benton added nine.
Wheaton North 69, Bronzeville 24: With a team effort, Wheaton North was victorious over Chicago Military Academy during tournament action at Elgin.
Zach Dungee was the game-high scorer with 15 points for the Falcons, while Aric Dama contributed 11 points.
Brandon McCray finished with 9 points for the Eagles.
Rolling Meadows 65, Hoffman Estates 55: 7Bus the teams to a neutral site. Start the game when they would normally still be in class. But no matter how you looked at it, it was just your typical Mid-Suburban League slug-it-out affair.
And Rolling Meadows exited the ring the victor, knocking Hoffman Estates out of the winner's bracket with a 65-55 win at the 33rd Annual Elgin Holiday Tournament.
The Mustangs (6-4) face Wheaton North (9-1), a 69-24 first-round winner over Bronzeville, today at 5 p.m., while Hoffman plays the Panthers at 8:45 a.m.
"It was basically an MSL game at 1:30," said Rolling Meadows senior Kyle Gaedele after scoring a team-high 21 points. "They made some runs, but in the end, we were just the more physical team."
Hoffman Estates (7-3), riding a three-game winning streak heading into Wednesday's matinee, missed 10 of its first 12 shots and converted only 34 percent (15-of-44) for the game. Hawks' leading scorer Luke Mead made only two free throws in the opening 16 minutes.
"Kyle and Ty (Kirk) both did outstanding jobs on him all game long," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich.
But they could only hold the 6-foot junior for so long. Mead scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter, and tallied seven during a 16-0 run that erased Meadows' 44-28 lead.
"The fact that we still had a shot in the fourth quarter was amazing," said Hoffman Estates coach Bill Wandro, whose team had as many turnovers (15) as field goals.
Mead's third 3-pointer pulled the Hawks within 54-52 with 2:35 left, but 26 seconds later, after making 12 of his first 13 attempts, he missed four consecutive free throws following a personal and technical foul on Meadows' senior Ben Sabal.
Mead yanked his jersey over his head in disgust after missing a chance to tie it at 56, but the entire Hawks' squad looked blindfolded from the line in the fourth, converting only 37 percent (6-of-16).
Gaedele went 4 of 5 from the line in the fourth quarter while Kirk (18 points) was 7 of 7 in the final eight minutes.
"The seniors did a nice job of persevering and handling the run, then finishing it off," Katovich said.
Rockford Auburn 57, Glenbrook South 52: With a team-high 22 points, Darnell Van Vleet pushed the Knights to victory. Keenan Knowles also did well, adding 15 points to the board.
Glenbrook South was led by the efforts of Jack Cooley. Cooley scored a game-high 24 points, including a 10-for-11 free throw performance.
Buffalo Grove 51, Fremd 45: It looks like Paul Timko has found a home away from home.
The Buffalo Grove senior sharp-shooter found the range from 3-point distance Wednesday against Fremd and sparked the Bison to a 51-45 victory in the first round of the 33rd Annual Elgin Holiday Boys Basketball Tournament.
Timko led all scorers with 17 points, including 5 baskets from behind the arc. The Bison (10-1) will face Rockford Auburn in the championship bracket at 6:30 p.m., and Fremd battles Glenbrook South at noon in the consolation bracket.
"My freshman year, we played Highland Park, and I had 4 3s," Timko said.
"He has historically shot well here," said his coach Ryan O'Connor.
Timko hit a pair of 3 pointers in the final 35 seconds of the first half and opened the third quarter with a third, giving the Bison a 26-16 lead at a time when the Bison have made a habit of putting away their opponents, early in the third quarter.
"Those 2 3 pointers put us up 7 at halftime and gave us great momentum going into the second half," O'Connor said.
Fremd, however, had a different plan. The Vikings stormed back with 8 unanswered points, 6 by Dan Bruno who made a traditional 3-point play and followed it with a 3-point basket with 5:07 left in the third.
The Vikings (4-8) virtually wiped out BG's lead to trail 36-35 after three quarters and again pulled to a 46-45 deficit with 1:14 remaining when Will Reising made both ends of a one-and-one.
A pair of turnovers and a missed shot from close range spelled the end for Fremd, and BG's James Hurley canned 3 of 4 from the line, and Timko a made pair of free throws to close out the game.
"We did play them well tonight," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. "We slowed them down a bit and kept them in a half-court game.
"We're disappointed we didn't win," he said. "They played well and expected to win."
Mike Ricciardi scored 13 for the Bison, and Brian DeSimone scored 9 on 3 3-pointers. Chris Klimek led Fremd with 11 points, Jim Mundt scored 10, and Bruno and Joe Depaolis each scored 8.
Batavia 72, Larkin 58: Both teams couldn't keep up their first-quarter pace Wednesday night.
While the Batavia boys basketball team fell off a little bit, Larkin fell off a lot.
The teams combined for 41 points in the first quarter before the Bulldogs outran the Royals in the second quarter to take a big lead and eventually routed Larkin, 72-58, in a first-game game of the 33rd annual Elgin Holiday Tournament.
"I think we picked it up defensively," Bulldogs coach Jim Roberts said. "We did a better job of eliminating their cut to the basket, and I thought we did a better job of rebounding."
Batavia (9-2) will play host Elgin, a 46-45 winner over Dundee-Crown, at 8 p.m. today in the quarterfinals. The Royals (0-11) face Dundee-Crown at 1:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs, who were without Northwestern signee Nick Fruendt for the fourth consecutive game, led 22-19 after the opening 8 minutes. They shot 9 of 15 in the quarter and hit four 3-pointers. David Bryant scored 10 of his 18 points in the quarter. Phil Albrecht added 8 points.
Larkin went 9-for-13 from the field in the first quarter.
"That's probably the best we've shot this year," Royals coach Larry Hight said. "We almost matched them shot for shot, but theirs were threes."
The second quarter was quite different for Larkin. The Royals went 2-for-14 and scored only 5 points. The Bulldogs shot 7 of 18 in the quarter, but offensive rebounds gave them multiple opportunities, and helped them to a 38-24 halftime lead.
The Royals cut the deficit to 40-30 just 3½ minutes into the second half, but the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run over the next 2 minutes to increase the lead to 48-30. They led by as many as 19 in the quarter and led 56-40 entering the fourth.
Larkin scored 8 of the fourth quarter's first 10 points to get within 10, 58-48, again. That was as close as the Royals would get.
"(The Royals) are a team that took Waubonsie Valley to the wire last Friday at Waubonsie. We never have and never will be in the position to take anything for granted," Roberts said about playing a winless Larkin team.
Jordan Smith also finished with 18 points, all in the final three quarters, for the Bulldogs, who had 4 players in double figures. Rick Clopton had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Albrecht added 11 points.
Cam Kinley, who Hight said played his best game of the season, led the Royals with 18 points, 10 in the fourth quarter. Brandon Cooks added 13 points. Jeff Saurbaugh had 9.
-- Brian Schaumburg
This roundup compiled by Jaci Corn.