Elgin 82, East Aurora 72

The Elgin boys basketball team held a double-digit lead for all but a minute and 45 seconds Friday night.

But its 82-72 victory over East Aurora at Chesbrough Field House was anything but easy.

"A win is a win," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was solid."

The Maroons scored the first 10 points of the game to grab a double-digit lead with 6:15 remaining in the first quarter. The lead was 23-3 with 1:40 left in the first quarter and 41-10 with 4:20 remaining in the second.

At that point, Armani Williams scored 15 of his game-high 25 points. Gustavo Herrera had 9 of his 13 second-quarter points and Jeremy Granger added 8.

"Our defense dictated the game," Granger said. "Our offense goes on our defense. Our defense was good so our offense was even better."

It appeared the Upstate Eight Conference matchup was going to be a rout. But that's when the game got interesting.

The Tomcats (12-8, 3-4) went on a 19-4 run to finish the first half to cut the deficit to 16, 45-29, going to the break. Elgin committed 7 turnovers in the quarter, 5 coming in the final 4 minutes.

"We can't allow teams get back into games like that," Williams said. "We have to stay focused."

East Aurora's Jamar Shepard, who scored all 17 of points in the second half, opened the second half with a layup as the Maroons' lead fell to 14, 45-31.

Elgin (11-8, 4-2), more specifically Granger and Williams, responded. Williams scored 10 points in the quarter, including a fast-break pull-up 3-pointer with 4 minutes left in the third quarter to increase the lead back to 20, 57-37. Granger, who finished with 20 points, added 7 as Elgin regained its 31-point advantage, 72-41, with 1:25 remaining in the third.

The Tomcats scored the final four points of the third and 15 of the first 17 of the fourth to again cut the deficit to 14, 74-60. Turnovers again cost the Maroons, who committed 10 turnovers in the quarter, as East Aurora used a full-court press to frustrate Elgin.

While the lead never fell below 10, the Maroons were just happy to survive.

"I'll tell you what, if we had another 2 minutes, who knows what would have happened," Tomcats coach Wendell Jeffries said.