Elgin 58, St. Charles North 50

Elgin senior Armani Williams held the regional title plaque in his hands and stared for a moment, letting the meaning sink in.

After four years of varsity basketball, Williams and the Maroons finally have some hardware to show for their hard work.

Williams and fellow senior guard Jeremy Granger took turns tormenting the St. Charles North defense and fending off second-half runs by the North Stars to lead Elgin to a 58-50 victory in the Class 4A Larkin regional championship game Friday night.

The regional victory is the 40th in Elgin High School's storied, 110-year basketball history, its first since 2002.

"It feels so great," Williams said. "I'm so happy for my team. We worked hard and we deserve this. We just wanted it. That's all we talked about was wanting this game. We came here, fought hard and got the win by playing hard-nosed defense, all playing together.

"Us all playing together is what makes us play so well."

Williams bounced back from Wednesday's 1-for-16 shooting performance from 3-point range to score a game-best 23 points, including four 3-pointers.

Granger did his part by vivisecting the North Stars in transition and in the paint to finish with 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting.

St. Charles North had hoped to limit Elgin's high-flying duo but …

"That's easier said than done," North Stars guard Nick Neari said. "They are definitely quick and athletic and play at a different level than most of the teams that we've played. They're very good offensively and it's hard to stay with them as much as they run. It came down to mental mistakes."

In fact, it came down to lots of them, according to North Stars coach Tom Poulin.

"We didn't play a very good basketball game," said Poulin, whose starting lineup included four juniors. "We made an awful lot of mistakes on both ends of the floor. A lot of those mistakes were between the ears, decision-making, things we haven't been doing lately."

One of those mental mistakes was not boxing out early. Elgin (19-9) out-rebounded St. Charles North (17-12) by a 22-17 margin in the first half, and used many of those second-chance opportunities to fuel an 11-0 run that bridged the first two quarters and staked the Maroons to a 20-10 lead.

Elgin led 32-24 at the half, but the North Stars pulled to within 32-31 with a 7-0 run, highlighted by a Zach Hirsch 3-pointer and an offensive rebound Mike Kastel converted for a 3-point play.

But Elgin answered with an 8-0 run consisting of an Armani Williams 3-pointer a pair of Granger drives and a Granger free throw to take a 40-31 lead with 38 seconds left in the third quarter.

Trailing 42-33, St. Charles North made another push at the outset of the fourth quarter, turning 3 Elgin turnovers and 4 Elgin missed shots into an 10-3 run that closed the deficit to 45-43 when Neari scored on a tip-in with 4:03 to play.

But Granger responded by driving the lane for an acrobatic layup and he subsequently stole a Neari pass to score an uncontested breakaway layup that put Elgin ahead 49-43 with 2:23 to play.

Williams sank 2 free throws after a St. Charles North miss and the North Stars never pulled closer than 8 points again.

"This is one of the best feelings I've had in my high school career," Granger said. "It's been a long time coming for us and it's like -- finally, we did it."

Elgin advances to a Class 4A Jacobs sectional semifinal on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. against Hononegah (28-2), which defeated Machesney Park Harlem 80-60 for the Hononegah regional title Friday.

Tickets for the Jacobs sectional will be on sale Monday for $5 at the Elgin High athletic office between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.