Elgin presses the issue vs. Dundee-Crown

Rarely are games won during the first four minutes.

This one was.

Scoring the first 11 points of the game, fourth-seeded Elgin was able to roll to a 59-44 win over fifth-seeded Dundee-Crown in a first round game of the Class 4A Crystal Lake South regional Tuesday night.

"Our defense got our offense started early," said Elgin coach Angie Hudson. "We got some easy baskets and were able to make Dundee-Crown play from behind."

Elgin (7-18) faces top-seeded Jacobs in a semifinal game Wednesday at 6 p.m.

Using a stifling full court press the Maroons forced the Chargers into 4 early turnovers and converted all the Charger (2-23) miscues into easy baskets.

Ellen Holton scored 6 points and Caris Alan tallied a pair of layup baskets as Elgin held an 11-0 lead with 4:02 left in the initial quarter.

"Starting slow has absolutely been a problem all season for us," said D-C coach Michelle Russell. "Tonight it was nerves. We played them on pretty even terms the rest of the game."

D-C, which misfired on its first 8 shots of the game, finally dented the scoreboard when Melissa Summaria buried a 3-pointer with 3:11 left in the first quarter to make the score 11-3.

The Maroons' biggest lead was 17, at 26-9 after a layup from Kayla Jackson with 2:56 left before the half.

D-C, which trailed 33-17 at halftime, made a run at the Maroons in the second half.

The Chargers got to within 8 on a putback by Jill Gantz with 2:22 left in the third quarter but couldn't get any closer.

Holton led the Maroons with 20 points, 13 rebounds and 7 blocked shots.

"We were motivated to prolong our season," said Holton. "We didn't want our season to end tonight. Our straight man-to-man press was effective."

Alan added 17 points for the winners.

"We wanted this one and played hard from the start," said Alan. "Our press got us going."

Alex Lococo was the lone Charger in double digits with 17.