Elk Grove pulls away from Wheeling

Victories have been tough to come by this season for the Elk Grove and Wheeling boys basketball teams.

But after a close first quarter, the host Grenadiers seized the momentum Friday night en route to a lopsided 66-36 Mid-Suburban League East Division victory over the Wildcats.

The Wildcats' Kevin Kortum hit his third-3-pointer of the first quarter to cut the Grenadiers' lead to 17-13 with 11 seconds left. But a spin move by Donny Duschinsky with one second left gave the Grens a 19-13 lead.

The Grens (6-14, 3-4) went on a 17-3 run to close out the first half with a commanding 36-18 advantage over the Wildcats (3-15, 0-5).

The Wildcats could not contain the Grenadiers' surge in the third quarter. A dunk off a fast break by Scott Siwicki (8 points) and an outside shot by senior Brian Battaglia (game-high 19 points) gave the Grens their biggest lead at 47-20 with 3:40 left in the period.

"Everyone knew each other's roles and everyone did what they needed to do," said Battaglia, who had 12 points at halftime. "We were not going to take them for granted, and we knew they were hungry for a win."

The Grens took a 52-25 lead into the fourth quarter, as Wheeling was outscored 33-12 in the second and third quarters combined.

Duschinsky wound up with 14 points, while teammate John Lorenz scored all 10 of his points in the first half. Kortum scored all 11 of his points in the first quarter for the Wildcats.

The first meeting at Wheeling was much closer with Elk Grove pulling away in the end for a 12-point victory earlier this season.

"No. 22 (Kortum) had 11 points in the first quarter for them so we wanted to do a better job defensively in the second quarter and our defense led to that run in the second quarter," said Grens coach Anthony Furman. "We're playing good man-to-man defense and we're just trusting each other instead of reaching in and making fouls."