Elgin takes out frustration on St. Charles North

Elgin came to St. Charles North Friday in a bad mood. After 32 minutes it was the host North Stars that left with that same foul demeanor.

The Maroons, two days after a stunning nonconference loss to Cary-Grove, righted the ship with a 65-59 victory to hand the North Stars their first conference defeat.

"We knew we had to step it up big time," Elgin guard Arie Wiliams said. "It (the Cary loss) really hurt all of us. We knew we should have played better than that. We know our true potential on this team. We know that when everything goes bad we have to come together as a team."

The win leaves Elgin (9-4, 3-1) tied with St. Charles East for first place in the bunched up Upstate Eight Conference River standings. St. Charles North (7-8, 2-1) is a half game back as is Batavia (8-6, 3-2).

"Our next goal is to win the Upstate Eight," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "I'm not afraid to say it in the media because the kids have all said it. It's up to them to try to accomplish it. Today was a big step forward in that."

St. Charles North started well. Elgin junior Kory Brown picked up his second foul with the score tied at 7 and the North Stars scored the next 9 points with Brown on the bench for their biggest lead of the game, 16-7.

Other than 3-pointers by Chris Conrad and Quinten Payne (team-high 14 points, 5 assists), the North Stars got all their first-quarter points on inside buckets by Kyle Nelson, Josh Mikes and Payne.

That inside focus helped the North Stars to a 19-14 lead after one. But they didn't stay with it, and after Brown sank a free throw midway through the second quarter to put the Maroons ahead 27-26, Elgin never trailed again.

"We didn't do a good job looking at the post to start the second half," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We came out of halftime, walked into the gym, and didn't do anything we said we were going to do. We just have way too many unforced, careless turnovers."

Both teams shot fairly well. Elgin hit 20 of its 41 attempts and St. Charles North made 22 of 46.

The difference came in the Maroons' ability to get to the line (18 of 31) to St. Charles North's 11 of 19. Elgin fouled out Nelson, St. Charles North's 6-foot-7 center, with 6:45 still left in the game.

"All of them were dumb fouls," said Nelson, who had 12 points in his limited minutes. "I don't need to throw my body at someone. It's high school basketball, AAU is a lot different. I should have adapted to it by now. The refs are going to call it a little more and I have to be aware of that and not fall for stupid fouls."

Elgin also had an advantage beyond the arc, making 7 3-pointers to the North Stars' 4. The sophomore Williams led the barrage with 5. He always came up with the answer to the North Stars student section teasing him for his 5-foot-5 size with chants like "It's your bed-time."

"It gets me going," Williams said with a huge smile. "I heard the chants. I liked the Gary Coleman one. I get a lot of chants because of the height and stuff but it doesn't really affect me."

Williams did most of his damage in the second half, scoring 12 of his 18 points and nailing 3 3-pointers. After Jason Weinzirl's 3 brought the North Stars as close as they'd get in the second half down 38-36, Williams quickly struck with his own 3. Two minutes later Williams chased down a long offensive rebound and let go another long 3 for a 46-36 lead.

"He's not supposed to be left alone," Poulin said. "He found ways to get himself open and we found ways to leave him wide open."

That was just one of the things that bugged Poulin as the North Stars started their 2011 schedule in the same lackluster way much of 2010 went.

"That's how we've been playing," Poulin said. "We've been playing like a .500 ballclub. We thought we were over the hump. We thought we had regrouped for the new year but we were the same old ballclub as far as focus, as far as following a game plan goes."

Down 57-44 early in the fourth quarter, the North Stars got as close as 61-56 with a minute to go before Jordan Dean's 2 free throws gave Elgin a little breathing room.

Brown shook off his early foul trouble to lead all scorers with 20 points plus 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Dennis Moore and Dean scored 10. Mikes added 12 points and Conrad 10 for the North Stars.

"That is one of the bigger wins just because a couple days ago was one of the more upsetting losses to me since I've been at Elgin," Sitter said. "For us to come back and show inner strength, we wouldn't have done that last year. We would have folded for a couple games in a row."