Aurora Christian turns up defense, downs St. Edward
Good defense can keep a team in a basketball game.
It can turn a game around as well.
Aurora Christian erased a 10-point first-quarter deficit by holding St. Edward to just 5 points in the next two quarters en route to a 56-41 Suburban Christian Conference victory in Elgin.
"Our defense was just awesome after the first quarter on," Eagles coach Steve Hanson said. "We ball-pressured well and had a hand in their face."
The Eagles (1-4, 1-0) trailed 19-9 after the first quarter. The Green Wave (4-1, 0-1) shot 9 for 14 in the quarter.
Things turned around quickly in the second quarter though. Aurora Christian's Salomon Kabongo-Kooper hit 3 of 4 free throws to cut the deficit to 19-12. With 6:43 left in the quarter, St. Edward's DJ Byrnes made 1 of 3 free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. That would be the only point the Green Wave scored in the quarter. They went 0 for 11 from the field and turned the ball over 4 times. Josh Haugen scored 5 points in the quarter as the teams were tied 20-20 at halftime.
"We picked up the energy," said Haugen, a sophomore who scored a game-high 17 points. "The crowd was getting to us at the beginning. After that we kept hitting shots and got a shot from the defense that was a big part of our game."
"I know we walked into halftime with our heads down," Green Wave coach Keith Chuipek said. "They went running off the court. The score was only 20-20. It looked like was just lost the game."
Aurora Christian scored the first 12 points of the second half to take a 32-20 lead before Gus Domel's layup for St. Edward's first basket in more than 111/2 minutes. The Green Wave went 2 for 7 from the floor and committed 11 turnovers in the third quarter as they trailed 39-24 entering the fourth.
"We talked about the hostile environment. We talked about the tradition here and how tough it was going to be," Hanson said. "They stood up the challenge."
Nick Marema scored 13 points for Aurora Christian. Ryan Suttle had 6 points and Kabongo-Kooper added 5 points and 10 rebounds.
Mike Ellis led the Green Wave with 13 points, 7 in the fourth quarter. Byrnes and Zack VonAhnen each finished with 6 points.