Rockford Auburn slows up Dundee-Crown
There's nothing like showing up for an 8:45 a.m. holiday tournament basketball game.
Against the tournament's No. 1 seed.
Rockford Auburn, by coaches' vote, is the No. 1 seed at the 36th Annual Elgin Holiday Tournament. And the Knights showed a spirited but outclassed Dundee-Crown squad why in the tournament's opening contest.
With guards Anthony Strickland and Fred Van Vleet combining for 38 points and spearheading a taut defensive effort that forced 15 first-half turnovers, Auburn ran away from the Chargers early. The Knights maintained that double-digit bulge to the end in a 79-65 win that was probably more competitive than the final score indicates.
D-C got an early taste of what it was in for against the Knights (7-1). The Chargers (5-2) committed turnovers on 6 of their first 8 possessions thanks to Auburn's overplay-and-deny, man-to-man pressure. They converted most of those turnover opportunities into baskets and ran to a 26-13 lead after one quarter, shooting 6-of-9 from the floor, mostly high-percentage run-out layups and/or fairly good looks on mid-range jumpers.
“They're really good. If they shoot like that, they're going to be hard to beat,” said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. “We were a little shaky in the first half.”
The Chargers never really got settled into their offensive flow thanks to the defensive disruption the Knights caused. When Strickland and Van Vleet weren't scoring themselves, they were setting up teammates like LaMark Foote and Javauntae Hicks for easy scores off of penetration moves. The Chargers tried everything in the way of defense — man, zone, match-up — but nothing slowed the Knights.
“We just tried to guard them,” Huber said with a shrug.
His team did have its moments, though. They far outdistanced the Knights on the boards (27-16) thanks to James Kimbrough and Ryan Smith (18 points), and they kept the Knights honest on the perimeter as southpaw Will Stupar came off the bench to throw in three consecutive 3-point baskets in the second quarter, 4 of 6 in all.
And each time it seemed like the Knights were going to turn it into a 30-point game, Smith would make a nice move inside and Bruce Dantzler finally found the path to the rim to get himself to the free throw line. The Chargers chipped 8 points off a 21-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter thanks to Nathan Kirchoff's ability to get himself to the free throw line, another Stupar trey and Smith's continued hard work around the basket.
But Strickland answered with two 3-pointers and found Hicks and Foote for layins to restore the lead.
“We used this to find out where we're at,” against the state's elite, said Huber. “We're about 20 points behind one of the best teams in the state.”
On any given day at about 8:45 a.m., that is. The Chargers play Glenbrook South at the same time Tuesday in the consolation bracket.