Elgin-Larkin highlights UEC's opening night
Out of the Thanksgiving tournament frying pan and into the Upstate Eight Conference fire.
The boys basketball season is less than two weeks old, but Larkin (3-1) and Elgin (2-2) are set to reignite their long-standing rivalry in the UEC opener at Elgin's Chesbrough Field House tonight at 7:30 p.m.
The teams met three times last season. Elgin took two out of three to extend its all-time series lead to 72-39.
"We've had a really good week of practice and everyone's excited about the big crowd we're going to have and the big Elgin-Larkin rivalry," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said.
"I think we're going to be walking into a tough atmosphere," first-year Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "That court and that arena is pretty historic. I'm interested in seeing the environment myself. We've been schooling our guys on it all week, just trying to get it into them how important this game is to everyone associated with both sides."
Last week the Maroons dropped their first two games at the Buffalo Grove Tournament in lopsided fashion to the host Bison and Stevenson, but they bounced back for a 13-point win over Holy Trinity and blew out University of Chicago Charter School-Woodlawn 73-28.
The Maroons played a frenetic style of defense, but such frenzy had an unwanted carry-over effect on offense. Elgin averaged 25 turnovers a game at Buffalo Grove.
"As coaches, we blame ourselves," Sitter said. "We came out saying we're young and we're fast and we're small, so let's just press the (heck) out of people. But playing at that pace caused us to play out of control offensively.
"Now we've kind of toned it back a little defensively and we're playing much better offensively. We were just playing at this defensive pace that was so fast it carried into our offense and we weren't taking care of the ball. I think we've learned that we need to take care of the ball in order to win. Things seem to be coming together. I'm excited."
Larkin opened with a 70-60 win against Belvidere on the Bucs' home court, lost by 23 points to Hononegah, blew out Parkview (Wis.) 90-54 and beat Round Lake 62-48.
The Royals are scoring an average of 66.3 points per game and allowing 57.8. A major weapon has been the 3-point shot. Larkin sank 37 3-pointers in 4 games at the Hoops for Healing Tournament, led by senior guard Ryan Smith's 17. Smith hit at least two 3-pointers in each game and sank 10 from beyond the arc against Parkview.
"The three is going to be a great tool," Carter said. "When we're making shots we should be very, very hard to beat because of the other things we bring to the table like energy and effort.
"It all starts on the defensive end. If we have that defense every night like we did a lot of those nights last week, when we make the three it'll make us that much more difficult to beat. But it all starts on the defensive end, no doubt about it."
Off to another good start: Fresh off its second straight Thanksgiving tournament title at Fenton, South Elgin opens the Upstate Eight Conference slate against Lake Park tonight at 7:30 p.m. The Storm visits Hampshire (2-1) for a nonconference game Saturday at 6 p.m.
Senior guard Tommy Childs was named the MVP of the Fenton tournament after he averaged 18.8 points per game. Joining him in the starting five have been 6-foot-2 senior Sam Jordt, junior guard Sam Sutter, sophomore center Matt Downing (6-6) and freshman point guard Jake Maestranzi. Senior Sheldon Chaney and juniors Dillon Gardner, John Menken and Matt Hattendorf come of the bench.
South Elgin was able to scout Lake Park (3-2) last week since the Lancers also played at Fenton, where they finished 3-1. Lake Park lost a nonconference game at Schaumburg 64-53 on Tuesday.
"They're very aggressive on defense," Storm coach Chaz Taft said. "They put four or five guys out on the floor at one time who can shoot the three. They're going to be tough. It's our first conference game and our first home game, so I don't want guys getting too jacked up to make an impression on their classmates. Let's just play the game."
An aberration, not the norm: Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith knew his team shot poorly in a 78-36 loss to Waukegan in the second game of the season, but it wasn't until he reviewed the film that he realized just how off-target his shooters were.
The Hawks (1-2), who had beaten Warren 69-65 two nights earlier, shot 15 of 80 from the field against Waukegan. That performance offset 24 Waukegan turnovers and 19 offensive rebounds by Bartlett.
"I've never seen 80 shots put up in any game," Wolfsmith said. "By my count we had 15 wide-open 3-point shots with no one within five feet of us and another 6 wide-open 2-point shots. We hit 3 of those 20 shots. And these were guys I count on. We just couldn't hit. I've never seen that. If we were a bad shooting team I'd just chalk it up to that, but we're not."
The Hawks will try to get on target and snap a two-game skid in their home opener against Waubonsie Valley (1-3) tonight at 7:30 p.m.
"We'll have speed and quickness on our side and they'll have the bigger bodies, much like it was against Warren," Wolfsmith said. "We're used to teams that are bigger than us, so hopefully we'll go out there and battle."