Moore, Elgin able to deny Batavia
With a defender right in his face, Elgin junior guard Dennis Moore hit the most important shot of Elgin's 59-54 victory over visiting Batavia Thursday.
His 3-pointer from the right corner not only staked Elgin to a 51-48 lead with 2:57 left in the Upstate Eight River battle, it forced Batavia to switch defenses.
After Batavia missed its shot at the other end and Elgin's Kory Brown tipped the defensive rebound to teammate Arie Williams, Batavia opted out of its zone defense for the first time in the game and played Elgin man to man.
"With their quickness, I think they would have held the ball," explained Batavia coach Jim Roberts of the tactical change.
The Maroons demonstrated on their next two possessions why teams avoid defending them straight when possible.
Junior Kory Brown and senior Jordan Dean each penetrated the lane, each drew the extra defender and each dished to wide-open forward Gerardo Mojica along the baseline for consecutive easy layups. Mojica's second straight bunny gave the Maroons a 55-48 lead with 1:27 left.
"Our guys salivate when they see teams go man to man," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "That was the first time we've really seen a zone this year and I think the guys handled it pretty well."
Elgin sank 5-of-9 free throws down the stretch to improve to 6-2 overall, 2-1 in the River Division.
Batavia (4-4, 2-2) saw its 3-game winning steak end despite 14 points by senior guard Jesse Coffey and 13 points and 12 rebounds from 6-foot-5 junior Cole Gardner, who had to fight for every point in the post.
"Like usual, we tried to get it down low and they took that away from us in the beginning by doubling us," Gardner said. "They'd bring the other guy over and it was rough."
Elgin led 26-23 at halftime, but the Bulldogs outscored the Maroons 18-10 in the third period, powered by 6 of Elliott Vaughn's 9 points and 4 points from Zach Strittmatter. Both players would eventually foul out in the fourth quarter, Vaughn with four minutes left.
Batavia took its biggest lead of the game, 45-39, on Coffey's bank shot with 5:59 left in the game, but the Maroons finished the contest on a 20-9 run. Batavia's offense was slowed after Elgin initiated a 1-3-1 half-court trap late in the third quarter.
"To their credit, they came with the 1-2-1 (half-court trap) and we panicked a bit," said Roberts, whose team committed 10 of its 18 turnovers in the second half. " It didn't help our cause much there so, hopefully, we'll learn from it."
Dean sank a 3-pointer to fuel Elgin's comeback surge and Williams (17 points) connected on a pair from beyond the arc, including the shot that tied the game at 47 with 4:31 to play.
Each team split a pair of free throws before Moore sank the game-defining shot from the corner. It was Elgin's fourth 3-pointer in 5 attempts in the fourth quarter. The Maroons sank 8-of-28 shots from long range overall.
The game featured 11 lead changes. Sitter said it was the type of contest the maturing Maroons would have found a way to lose last year. Moore agreed.
"We lost close games like this last year," said Moore, who finished with 10 points and 2 steals. "It takes a good team to come back and win. I think we worked hard, got the lead and got the win."