Egwu, St. Ignatius rout South Elgin
South Elgin boys basketball coach Chaz Taft can accept the fact his team was unable to slow one of the top 100 college prospects in the nation in a 60-38 loss to St. Ignatius in the fifth-place game of the 37th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School Thursday.
Nnanna Egwu, a 6-foot-10, 230-pound senior center committed to play for Illinois next fall, did his expected damage by leading all scorers with 21 points to go with his season-best 18 rebounds.
What Taft won't accept is a lack of commitment from his players. His team entered the fourth and final game of the tournament with its normal nine-man rotation trimmed to seven because one player missed a week of practice and another didn't show up in time for Thursday's walk through.
"It comes down to commitment to us," Taft said. "We have a kid who missed a walk through, we had a kid miss a week of practice and think they're going to come play in the tournament?
"My thing to the guys was, 'Hey, we haven't had our rotation (intact) yet, maybe once or twice at full strength, and you're going to tell me I'm supposed to play you guys because you guys can't wake up or because you can't do something?'
"I'm all about the ethic. I would rather lose games when guys miss and sit. I'm going to sit them. I'm not going to play them rather than play that kid and win. That doesn't make sense to me. I would rather lose the game."
South Elgin (7-6) finished 2-2 at York and placed sixth overall, tying its best showing at York. The Storm was still in the game after a quarter, trailing 16-12, until St. Ignatius (9-3) turned up the defensive pressure. The Wolfpack held South Elgin to 4 points in the second quarter and 9 in the third to pull away.
South Elgin guard Sammy Sutter, an all-tournament selection, was held to 6 points on 2-of-8 shooting.
"I know it's going to happen," Sutter said of being tagged by the defense and denied the ball. "I had a couple of good games. If they deny me the ball, I just have to not force shots and take what they give me."
Meanwhile, Egwu put on a show. He scored on turnaround jump shots, jumpers from the elbow and assorted putbacks. When South Elgin opened the game by triple teaming Egwu, he burned them by kicking passes to the perimeter.
Junior guard Brian Howard was the beneficiary of several such passes from the big center and knocked down 4 outside shots in the first half. That forced the Storm to only double Egwu.
"The coaches knew I could get my shots in and they told the guards to get me the ball," Egwu said. "Not only did it help me get my shots, but when they came to double team me the guards were open for shots, too. They're good shooters. They know when to shoot and they know where I'm going to find them."
Howard finished with 9 points while starting guard Jack Crepeau sank 5-of-9 shots for 11 points. South Elgin center Matt Hattendorf (6-foot-4) matched Egwu with 6 first quarter points, but the Illinois-bound big man simply caused too many problems for the Storm to handle.
"He just hit some tough shots and we had some miscommunications on defense," Hattendorf said. "We got messed up, he got some easy buckets and they got on a roll."
South Elgin resumes play in the Upstate Eight Conference's Valley Division next Friday against visiting rival Bartlett.
Naperville Central 51, Streamwood 28: Naperville Central is hoping for the slingshot effect.
An inconsistent boys basketball team throughout the first half of the season, the Redhawks will enter next Friday's DuPage Valley Conference rivalry matchup against Naperville North riding their first winning streak of the season, courtesy of Thursday's 51-28 dismantling of Streamwood on the final day of the 37th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic.
The win gives Naperville Central (5-8) back-to-back victories for the first time this season. The Redhawks defeated Deerfield on Wednesday on the heels of tournament losses to Prospect and Kenwood.
"We wanted to get another W, two in a row," said Redhawks senior David Niggins, who led all players in scoring with 14 points and rebounds with 10. "We needed it, too. Now we have some good momentum going into that next game. We have to get this one against North."
Streamwood (4-10) didn't resemble the team that knocked off Vernon Hills in overtime a day earlier. The Sabres were held to 4 points in the first quarter and the Redhawks outscored them 17-1 in the second quarter to take a 25-5 halftime lead. Streamwood did not hit a field goal for the final 10:38 of the first half, a span in which the Sabres were outscored 22-1.
"I think we were very intimidated by them and I don't know why," Streamwood coach Tim Jones said. "I mean, they're a very good basketball team. They beat us up inside for a while.
"But I thought we would be able to pressure them with our guards and our guards did not play very well. It didn't matter who it was, we didn't play very well."
Streamwood was held to 15 points through three quarters, led by 12 points from 6-foot-4 senior Mike Montgomery. The other four starters were scoreless.