Elgin 67, St. Charles East 57
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St. Charles East senior Collin Pryor scored 29 points to eclipse 1,000 for his two-year varsity career and the Saints held Elgin guard Armani Williams to 11 points, about half his average, on 1-of-16 shooting from 3-point range.
However, a more telling statistic reveals the underlying story behind No. 3 Elgin's 67-57 victory over No. 2 St. Charles East in a Class 4A Larkin regional semifinal: Elgin out-rebounded the Saints 52-28.
The Maroons' dominance of the boards was spearheaded by a career-best 23-rebound effort from 6-foot-5 center D'Angelo Stewart, who averages 8 rebounds.
Elgin's inspired senior big man also contributed 15 points, all of which he scored after snaring one of his 15 offensive boards, and senior guard Jeremy Granger added 22 points to advance the Maroons (18-9) to Friday's regional title game against No. 1 St. Charles North (17-11).
"I came in with a big chip on my shoulder," said Stewart, who said his team wanted to exact revenge on the Saints for ending Elgin's season in overtime in a regional title game last year.
"We wanted this bad, real bad. (Elgin 2007 alumnus) Brandon Grissette got me pumped up before the game. He said, 'Don't let them do it to you two years in a row.' That got me hyped up."
The Maroons used a 6-0 run to grab a 15-11 lead after a quarter and Elgin held a 29-23 lead at the half despite an 0-for-10 shooting performance from Williams.
However, Pryor scored 12 points in the third quarter on 5-of-6 shooting from close proximity to the basket to keep the Saints within striking distance throughout the third quarter.
Pryor's 2 free throws eventually knotted the game at 44 with 7:51 left in the contest, but Elgin answered with a 9-0 run highlighted by a Granger 3-pointer and capped by a pair of offensive putbacks from Stewart on consecutive possessions.
St. Charles East (13-14) never threatened again.
"Both teams played incredible defense," Saints coach Brian Clodi said. "If you take away their extra shots, we win. But they would get 2 or 3 offensive putbacks that would take the wind right out of our sails."
Said a sullen Pryor after his final high school game: "They had 27 offensive rebounds against us. No matter how good you are, a team that gets that many more offensive attempts is going to hurt you."
Unlike in the Jan. 17 meeting between the Upstate Eight Conference rivals, which the Saints won 85-77, Elgin played stingy defense this time around. The Maroons caused 16 St. Charles East turnovers, led by 4 steals apiece from Armani Williams and Granger and 3 steals by Kenny Williams.
Marc Stellato and Brian Lankton each scored 9 points for the Saints, who sank just 3 of 17 attempts from 3-point range.