Elgin sustains its runs, knocks off Cary-Grove
A 4-point halftime margin didn't accurately reflect the Elgin boys basketball team's dominance at Cary-Grove on Tuesday, but the final score did.
Though the Maroons dominated the boards and forced twice as many turnovers as they committed, they led the nonconference game just 26-22 after two quarters.
However, Elgin used defense to spark its offense and outscored the Trojans 31-11 in the second half - including a 17-3 margin in the fourth quarter - to post a convincing 57-33 victory, its second straight.
"We realized all we really had to do was pressure the ball and get points off turnovers and fast breaks, so that's what we did," Elgin senior Joe Wade said.
Senior guard Tom Roth helped Elgin (8-10) pull away by scoring 10 of his game-high 17 points in the third quarter. Roth sank a pair of 3-pointers, the second of which rattled home with 1:36 left in the third quarter and gave Elgin a 40-30 lead it would take to the final period.
Cary-Grove (11-9), which dropped its third straight game since the loss of senior point guard and captain Pete Pellizzari to injury, was unable to handle Elgin's pressure man-to-man defense. The Trojans committed 17 turnovers and shot 11 of 38 from the field (29 percent), 1 of 16 from 3-point range.
"They manhandled us," Trojans coach Ralph Schuetzle said. "We had a hard time guarding (Marcus Redburg) and they beat us on the glass. Their switching defense just took us out of anything we tried to do. We talked about trying not to throw the ball to the wing so much and keep it inside the volleyball lines, but we couldn't do that. They broke loose on us and we got our butt kicked."
Elgin's pressure defense didn't allow the Trojans to dictate the same type of grind-it-out tempo they employed in a narrow defeat at Jacobs last week.
"If we let them run their sets they would kill us," Elgin senior Steve Edwards said. "If they take a minute off the clock every time, then we're going to lose. We tried to get up and pressure the ball as much as we could and it seemed to work out pretty well."
A pair of steals at the outset of the fourth quarter put Elgin in complete control. Roth deflected a Cary-Grove pass, and the Maroons forwarded the ball to Edwards on the release for a breakaway, two-handed slam dunk and a 42-30 lead.
Roth followed seconds later with a steal just inside the midcourt line that he converted for a layup and a 14-point lead that would only expand. The Trojans shot 1 of 13 in the fourth quarter. Their only field goal was a double-pump leaner from senior guard Chris Swenson, who finished with a team-best 9 points.
"We've always played with heart," Swenson said. "The last two games we didn't have that. The loss of our best player can't mean the loss of our season, so we have to find a way to get that energy back that we always had with (Pellizzari)."
Elgin dominated the rebounding battle 35-20, including 17 offensive rebounds that fueled the second-half blowout.
"That's the first time all year we went on a run and we kept it going," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "Sometimes we'll score 6 or 8 straight, but then we'll give up a putback or commit a dumb foul, shoot ourselves in the foot and get down on ourselves.
"This time we kept it going and going and going. That's what good teams do, they get a little momentum and it builds into big momentum.
Redburg scored 14 points and grabbed 7 rebounds for Elgin, while Edwards scored 10 points to go with 6 rebounds. Matt Jones added 9 points for the Trojans.