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 midrange 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 penetration moves. The Chargers tried everything in the way of defense man, zone, matchup 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.
The Chargers play Glenbrook South at 8:45 a.m. today in the consolation bracket.
Other games: Tyler Gaedele scored 23 points to lead Rolling Meadows to a 63-61 win over Glenbrook South. Eric Lowe and Paul Volkman had 10 points each for the Mustangs. Corey McMahon scored 19 points and Justin Busiel had 18 for Glenbrook South. ... Ed Norris paced Wheaton North to a 40-37 win over Highland Park with 11 points. Jeff Schalk and Mike Fitzpatrick had 8 points each for the Falcons. Cole Stern led Highland Park with 13 points. ... Nick Prus' 21 points led Buffalo Grove to a 72-52 win over Batavia. Jeff Zabrin had 17 points for the Bison and Nick Potnick added 11. Jesse Coffey led Batavia with 16 points. ... Jack Konopka dropped in 19 points as Fremd downed Rockford Guilford 62-50. Quinton Brown had 15 points and Matt Wisniewski added 10 for the Vikings. Brandon Blankenship led Guilford with 15 points, while Juwan Hubbard and Quavion Kimble added 12 each. ... Sam Johnson's 17 points helped Neuqua Valley down Willowbrook 84-40. Jabari Sandifer added 10 for the Wildcats.