Brown, Elgin rout DeKalb
Elgin coach Mike Sitter wanted Kory Brown to assess his performance at a recent practice.
Both he and Sitter agreed Brown would rate around a 7 on a scale of 1-10.
DeKalb rated Brown’s first-quarter performance as a 13.
That was the amount of points Brown dropped on the visiting Barbs as Elgin jumped out to a 20-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Brown finished with 17 points as Elgin (16-5) took a 65-46 victory in nonconference action Tuesday night at Chesbrough Field House.
“Coach said it was time for me to step up,” Brown said. “I need to be able to get my shots off.”
The quickest way Brown was able to get his shots off was by plain out running DeKalb’s defense. Brown grabbed a steal and ran the length of the court sprinting down to connect on a shot to cut the DeKalb (6-19) lead down to 7-6 with 4:42 left in the first quarter.
Less than 20 seconds later, Brown got the ball down low and muscled the ball in to give Elgin an 8-7 lead. The junior center, who plays guard in the AAU circuit, went 6 of 6 in the first quarter and 8 of 10 in the game. Elgin went 9 of 13 in the first quarter and 15 of 26 in the first half.
“He’s been dominating practice lately,” Sitter said. “One thing we talked to him about was deferring to his teammates. He is without a doubt the best player on the team. He shouldn’t be deferring to anyone. When you get a rebound and go coast-to-coast, that’s tough to stop.”
Brown’s first-quarter was capped off when teammate Arie Williams stole the ball and sent it down to a wide-open Brown.
The junior slammed down a thunderous dunk which sent everyone in Chesbrough Field House not wearing a DeKalb shirt into a frenzy.
“I was kind of off, but I found other ways to get my teammates involved,” said Williams, who finished with 12 points and 5 assists. “We look for (Brown) to be a leader in that role. Kory can score very fast.”
Elgin’s team speed led to several key baskets as well. The Maroons finished with 14 steals. Brown stole the ball 5 times and Williams and Devin Gilliam each got a pair of steals.
When stealing the ball didn’t work, Elgin just outmuscled the Barbs. Elgin had a 12-2 offensive rebound advantage in the second half, with Matt Andres scoring 7 second-chance points in the third quarter as Elgin outscored DeKalb 23-8.
Jake Carpenter scored 9 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter for DeKalb. Dennis Moore added 11 points and 2 assists for Elgin.