Elgin tames Cary-Grove

Elgin senior guard Desmond Douglas knows when the Maroons' boys basketball team displays their brand of up-tempo play based on the turnovers they create, it can get ugly for teams with contrasting styles.

“That's the style of basketball we play, “ Douglas said after Elgin's 74-48 nonconference blow out of Cary-Grove at Chesbrough Field House Tuesday that ended the Maroons' 3-game losing skid.

“We're not a team that's going to sit around and run a half court offense, that's not our game,” Douglas added. “Making them play at our tempo and not playing at other teams' tempo.”

The Maroons (5-4) forced 21 turnovers on 11 steals and broke open an 11-point halftime lead in transition by outscoring the Trojans (2-8) by 15 in the second half. C-G was limited to 21 points in its fourth-straight loss as Daniel Schmidt, who posted a game-high 22 points, was held to just 2 in the second half — after 20 of which came in the first half and 14 right off the bat in the first quarter.

“Well, (Schmidt's) left-handed so we stopped letting him go left and we stopped letting it touch it near the rim,” Maroons' coach Mike Sitter said of one of his adjustments at halftime. “It was our full court defense, got into the passing lanes and caused a lot of turnovers. But we also gave up a lot of buckets in the first half. In the second half we ratcheted up the defense and that was the difference.”

That led to points in transition, which led to a torrid offensive display for the Maroons. Led by Tim Wolf's team-high 19 points, which included five 3-point field goals, while Douglas totaled 17 points and 2 from deep. Lavion Baldwin finished with 11 points including three 3-pointers. Elgin nailed 13 from deep, including buckets from Reggie Cole, Duawon Bonds and Courtese Cooper.

“(Wolf) was on fire tonight,” Sitter exclaimed. “He's just rounding into shape and it gives us another option; it just makes us even a player deeper. If they're going to pack in that zone, we just spotted him up outside and he's a great outside shooter and Desmond did a nice job finding him and kicking out. When they're collapsing on Desmond, when he handles the ball he's got to find the open guy more often than not.”