Conant denies Elk Grove with impressive 'D'

Thanks to a lockdown defensive effort, Conant had no problem advancing in the Class 4A Rolling Meadows boys basketball regional.

Trailing 10-9 late in the first half, the Cougars outscored Elk Grove 42-12 the rest of the way in a 51-21 win Tuesday.

Jimmy Sotos scored 17 points to lead Conant. The No. 9 seed Cougars advance to a regional final date at Meadows against No. 1 seed Barrington.

Elk Grove senior forward Tyler Ingebrigtsen had 4 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 2 blocks as the Grens met with stiff resistance all the way.

"We had a slow start on offense," said Cougars coach Tom McCormack. "But our defense was solid the entire game. We've got some young players who are starting to get comfortable with each other on 'D.' "

Elk Grove was frustrated on offense the entire game, especially from the 3-point line.

The Grenadiers hit an early 3-pointer but then missed their next 17 from behind the arc.

"A lot of that was due to Conant," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman of the Grens' poor shooting. "They were the better team tonight. I thought that we couldn't have done a better job on defense. We gave up, what, only 34 points to them at the end of three quarters? But we couldn't score.

"We had trouble with their length and their defense on the perimeter. We had some good looks but when you don't shoot well you can't loosen up their perimeter defense."

After Ingebrigtsen's layup gave Elk Grove a 1-point lead with a couple of minutes left in the second quarter, Jimmy Sotos, Danny Sotos and Brandon Vinson each hit 3-pointers to help the Cougars to a 22-10 halftime advantage.

"That run set us up for the second half," said Conant junior forward Kyle Bradley, who finished with 11 points. "We knew if we kept the pressure up on defense we'd get some turnovers, and then we could get the ball to our shooters."

Jimmy Sotos set the tone for the second half by opening with a quick 3-pointer.

When Bradley made a sweet feed on a backdoor cut to Jimmy Sotos for a layup, Conant led 31-13.

A 3-point play from Bradley followed moments later.

"We got great guard play from Jimmy (Sotos) and Brandon (Vinson) tonight," McCormack said. "And Danny (Sotos) did a great job of letting the game come to him. I also thought that Jordan (Hughes, a 6-foot-10 center) was a force in the second half with his rebounding and shot blocking."

Danny Sotos had 10 points and 6 rebounds for Conant.

Vinson added 7 points while Jon Maday had 4 points for the Grens.

"We let them (Conant) have a run to end the first half," Furman said. "But the key to the game wasn't that we let them have that run. The key was that we never got it going on offense."

Leyden regional: Eighth-seeded Oak Park-River Forest ended the season for No. 10 seed Leyden with a 66-43 decision in Class 4A regional semifinal hosted by the Eagles on Tuesday.

The Huskies advance to a Friday regional final at Leyden against the Morton sectional's top seed, Riverside-Brookfield. R-B advanced by handling Chicago Lindblom 77-40 on Tuesday.