Elgin men trip up Morton
The Elgin Community College men’s basketball team knew it had to crash the boards Thursday night if it wanted to advance in the Region IV Tournament.
The Spartans outrebounded Morton College, 52-28, and earned an 80-67 victory to advance to the Division II District B semifinals.
“That was a pretty big key for us,” ECC’s Corey Rau said. “When we played there, the big guy (6-foot-10 Phillip Bishkinskiy) pretty much killed us on the glass.”
ECC (15-15) will at 4 p.m. Sunday at Illinois Valley College in the semifinals. The Spartans likely might be without leading scorer Mike Banks, an Illinois Skyway Collegiate all-conference first-team selection. Banks appeared to take an elbow to the face and laid on the floor for about 20 minutes before leaving the gymnasium on a stretcher.
The Spartans grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, and 29 total, and hit 5 3-pointers in the first half to take a 39-30 halftime lead. Rau had 9 points and 6 rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. Jason Morris had 4 offensive rebounds and Banks and Sean Meyer each had 3. Shane Larkin hit 3 of his 5 3-pointers in the half.
“I told the guys (Wednesday night) the four keys were No. 1 defend, No. 2 defend, No. 3 defend and No. 4 rebound,” said ECC coach Reed Nosbisch, who missed the first 13 minutes of the game because of parent-teacher conferences.
ECC failed to score on its first 10 possessions of the second half, going 0-for-4 from the floor and committing 7 turnovers. But Morton (13-18) was unable to take advantage, only getting to within 4, 39-25. Banks, who finished with 10 points, scored with 14:39 remaining in the second half to finally get ECC going. The Spartans increased the lead to 10, 45-35, 70 seconds later.
Three consecutive turnovers later in the half allowed the Panthers to get with 4 again, 56-52, with 6:39 left. The Spartans were able to keep their composure, increased the lead back to double figures, 69-59, with 2:22 left.
“I thought we played fairly well, for the time I was here,” Nosbisch said. “I thought we got a little hesitant there in the second half.”
Rau finished with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Larkin finished with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Lance Vesper added 10 points and 13 rebounds. Jason Morris had 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Bishkinskiy led the Panthers with 21 points and 7 rebounds. Denarius Miller, who averages close to 30 points per game, had 19 points. Travis Marley had 15, 14 in the second half.