Elgin falls to Rockford Jefferson

ROCKFORD -Elgin hung with powerful Rockford Jefferson, but Maroons' coach Mike Sitter wasn't interested in moral victories.

Despite 23 points by Marcus Redberg, Elgin fell 66-54 in nonconference action at Chalmer Hart Gymnasium Saturday night.

"There's three things that go into basketball: there's athleticism, execution, and effort, and we lost on all three tonight," Sitter said. "We knew coming in they were more athletic than us, we scouted them, we knew exactly what we had to do to win. But we didn't execute it, and we didn't have the effort on the court.

The J-Hawks, who moved to 15-2 on the season, were led by Mershon Wilkes' 20 points.

Jefferson grabbed an 18-6 lead behind a couple of Wilkes 3-pointers. Thereafter, the J-Hawks could never put Elgin away, but the Maroons never seriously threatened, either. Jefferson led by between 7 and 16 points the rest of the way.

The J-Hawks shot 65 percent in the first half to lead 36-22 at halftime.

Elgin trailed just 53-44 early in the fourth quarter, but Jefferson scored 6 straight points to pull away. A 3-pointer by Nikil Satish made it 61-49 with 2:13 left, but that was as close as the Maroons could get.

Elgin missed a chance to get closer by missing 5 straight free throws in the final period.

Tom Roth added 16 points for Elgin (6-9), but the rest of the Maroons combined for just 15 points. Tim Newcombe had 6 of those coming off the bench.

Thaddeus Perry added 13 points, Chris King 10, and Mario Manns 9 for Jefferson.

Elgin dominated in the paint with Redburg, but the J-Hawks took advantage of their athleticism to push the ball up the court and score on a variety of acrobatic shots.

"It's a different style of basketball than we're used to," said Sitter. "They're a very athletic team. It lets us know that if we're not the best athletes walking on the court, there's other things we need to do to win."