Elgin gets past East Aurora (minus Boatright)
The Elgin boys basketball team built a 16-point lead in the third quarter, but the Maroons' 66-64 victory wasn't sealed until the final seconds even though East Aurora played with less than a full "boat" Tuesday
Ryan Boatright, the Connecticut-bound senior guard for the Tomcats, did not dress due to "violation of a team rule," according to East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries, who did not specify the length of Boatright's suspension.
Even without their dynamic floor leader, the Tomcats pushed the Maroons to the limit before dropping the Upstate Eight Conference crossover at Chesbrough Field House.
Elgin (13-5) grabbed a 65-61 lead after sophomore guard Arie Williams split a pair of free throws with 24.6 second to play.
However, the Maroons fouled Letrell "Snoop" Viser on a 3-point attempt with 11.6 seconds remaining. Viser sank all 3 free throws to draw East Aurora (14-4) within a point.
The Tomcats went for the steal on the ensuing inbounds play, but they were whistled for a foul against Elgin's Jordan Dean, who split a pair of free throws with 7.1 second left.
Viser hustled up court with the rebound with time running out, but his desperation 3-point attempt guarded well by Kory Brown and Dean fell several feet wide of the mark as the buzzer sounded.
Elgin coach Mike Sitter felt the game never should have gotten that close, not after the Maroons led 43-27 with six minutes left in the third quarter.
"We came out in the third quarter and we lost our aggressiveness," Sitter said. "All the sudden we miss a couple of layups and we're not moving our feet on defense and we're not rebounding. That's frustrating. It's happened to us three or four times this year.
"It's tough for the kids because after a good win like this you'd think they'd be celebrating in the locker room, but they're really not. They know they were one miracle shot away from losing the game because we didn't put distance between us when we should have."
East Aurora bridged the third and fourth quarters with a 13-2 run, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from the corner by senior guard John Williams (15 points).
The Maroons got a huge lift down the stretch from junior guard Matt Andres (9 points), who scored 3 layups in 3 possessions, helped by a press-breaking assist from Dean and two more from Brown.
"Kory penetrated and dished me the ball," Andres said. "I was open. My job is to be on the opposite side of the ball. Kory draws my defender and then he just drops it down and I'm wide open."
"He read me, I read him and I dished it to him every time I drove and we got points out of it," said Brown who led all scorers with 19 points to go with 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
Free throws played a large role in the outcome. In a tightly officiated contest Elgin made 26 of its 36 free-throw attempts; East Aurora made 21 of 25.
Jeffries felt the Tomcats could have won the game in Boatright's absence had they not come out timidly in the first half. Elgin led 16-9 after a quarter and 37-25 at halftime.
"We came out unsure of ourselves," Jeffries said. "We've had four years of Ryan with the ball in his hands 90 percent of the time. I thought we came out a little unsure and back on our heels a little bit and we kind of took a back seat to them. Elgin came out aggressive.
"If we'd played in the first half with the same aggressiveness and intensity as we played with in the second half, I think we would have won the game."
Arie Williams had 11 points and Dean scored 10 for Elgin. Dominique Johnson led the Tomcats with 16 points and Viser added 15.