Inconsistency dooms Elgin
All Elgin coach Mike Sitter wants for Christmas is a four-quarter effort from his Maroons, but their inconsistency in Monday's 76-60 loss to Rockford Auburn on opening day at the Elgin Holiday Tournament was more like a lump of coal.
Elgin (2-7) led Auburn (7-2), one of the tournament's top-four seeds, by 10 points in the second quarter and still held a 33-32 lead at the half. However, an 8-0 run at the outset of the third quarter by a revamped Knights lineup flipped the score, and the Maroons never pulled closer than within 4 points of the lead the rest of the way.
"We really need five guys busting their butts offensively and defensively to win and we didn't do that for four quarters," Sitter said. "We did that for about a quarter and a half. We can play with anyone in the state for about a quarter and a half. After that we've just kind of gone to pot this year. We need to sustain that enthusiasm."
At halftime both coaches stressed to their teams the importance of a strong start to the third quarter, but only Auburn took heed. With reserves senior Brandon Whitehorn and sophomore LaMar Foote inserted into the lineup to start the second half, the Knights dialed the defensive pressure up a notch, which ignited their running game.
Auburn opened the second half with a steal of the inbound pass by sophomore guard Fred VanVleet (game-high 18 points), who scored on a breakaway to give the Knights the lead. A steal and runout by Foote, and back-to-back baskets by junior Anthony Strickland (17 points) put Auburn ahead 40-33 with 4:45 left in the third quarter.
"We shuffled the lineup a little bit thinking we could get a mix of guys that would go out there and pressure and that's what we did," Auburn coach Bryan Ott said.
Elgin twice closed the gap to 4 points - on a three-point play by sophomore Matt Andres with 3:30 left in the third quarter and on a baseline jump shot by freshman Arie Williams with 1:06 to play in the third - but a teardrop bucket from Auburn's Joseph Danforth and a short jumper by Strickland put the Knights ahead 53-45 heading to the fourth quarter.
"We never picked it up in the second half," said Jordan Dean, who led Elgin with 16 points. "I've said it before: If we want to win games, we have to play the same in the second half as we do in the first half."
Williams, making his varsity debut, scored 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting. The 5-foot-4 freshman hit his first 4 shots, including three 3-pointers.