Elk Grove’s success continues

Elk Grove is learning.

To be confident. To hit shots. In the clutch. And to play defense. And most of all, to win.

The Grens pulled within a game of .500 (7-8) and completed a 2-0 weekend at home with Saturday night’s 62-57 Mid-Suburban League crossover victory over Conant, withstanding a furious Cougar (8-8) second-half rally. More importantly, they’re discovering that they have the wherewithal and stamina — physically and mentally — to hang on for wins against traditional powers.

“We have confidence in each other,” said Grenadiers high scorer Austin Amann (23 points), whose 12 second-half points were crucial, especially a 3-pointer off a cross-court feed from Kishan Patel with 3:00 left, in transition. That pretty much stunted a Cougar rally that had trimmed a 42-25 halftime lead to 5 points twice.

Tim Manczko (23 points) and 6-foot-5 sophomore Mitch Tednes (12) led the Conant rally, but the Cougars couldn’t come all the way back.

After nailing 5-of-6 3-point attempts in the first half, Elk Grove cooled off in the face of Conant’s man-to-man defense, which the Cougars were forced to try.

“We had to,” said Conant coach Tom McCormack. “We couldn’t guard them out of the zone,” especially after Zach Solorio (16 points) made all five of his 3-point attempts in the game, four in the second period. In fact, the Grens were a sizzling 8-of-11 on 3-pointers in the first half.

“He was on fire,” Amann said of Solorio.

Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman thinks the effort is indicative of the improvement they’ve been showing since a strong fourth-place finish at the Jacobs Christmas Tournament.

“We’re learning to win,” he said after the Grenadiers surpassed last season’s victory total. “We saw our openings and we took them. We were fortunate to knock down some shots. It took us time to make some adjustments in the second half,” when Conant came out in man defense.

Amann agreed. “We came out strong,” in the first half, he noted, and finished strong in the in the second half. Some of what’s driving the Grens though, he said, is, “Everyone’s looking for their shot,” with the confidence to hit it.

Let the learning experience continue.