Elmhurst College takes CCIW tournament
Holding a trophy and wearing a new championship T-shirt, Elmhurst College junior Lavon Thomas was quick to remember just how much he and his teammates have grown and improved the last couple years.
The Bluejays' 6-foot-5, 260-pound power forward did not play much the last two seasons. This season he became a force and helped Elmhurst College put together back-to-back stellar efforts in capturing the school's first CCIW tournament title.
Thomas had 17 points and 8 rebounds Saturday night as Elmhurst held off a strong Illinois Wesleyan squad 78-72 to claim an automatic berth in the Division III NCAA Tournament.
"From my freshman year to now, it's just been amazing. An amazing leap. From sophomore year not playing at all and weight problems to me just getting in the gym every day. It just feels good after all the hard work everybody put in," said Thomas, who transferred from St. Joseph to Wheaton North his senior year of high school, played football for the Falcons but missed the basketball season after tearing his ACL.
The 23-5 Bluejays were once again led by senior guard Jake Rhode, who played 36 minutes and came away with 22 points and 3 steals. But four Elmhurst players scored in double figures, including 13 points from Jay Militello. Thomas got plenty of defensive help from his mates in trying to hold off Titans 6-7 sophomore Matthew Leritz.
Leritz had 11 points in the first half but just six over the final 20 minutes as the Bluejays defense attacked him with second defenders whenever possible.
"We had to start running another guy at him," Elmhurst coach John Baines said of his team's defensive adjustments. "It was a gamble, but we knew we had to do something."
Elmhurst led just 36-34 at the half, and the game was tight throughout. After a three-point play from Thomas, however, the lead was 57-48 midway through the second half.
Everything looked good for the Bluejays. But the Titans (19-9) battled back and took a 65-64 lead with 5:04 left.
Rhode got the lead back with a driving underhanded flip shot, and Elmhurst never trailed again. With three minutes to go, Rhode drove and while falling down dished out to Wesley Hooker for a 3-pointer and a 71-65 lead.
Baines, whose team knocked off top-seeded North Central College on Friday, was thrilled to see this group of kids pull out the highly contested CCIW tourney title.
"You saw the last two nights, these four teams ... we could have played this tournament 10 times and you would have a lot of different winners. We were just on the good side of it and it felt like Jake took the game over and our defense in the second half came up big.
"They've just grown up. We recruited a lot of talent three years ago," added Baines, who guided the program to a pair of at-large NCAA playoff bids over the last five years. "We had nine seniors on that team. They went to the NCAAs. They all graduated and we brought in this group."
Titans coach Ron Rose and his team played a solid CCIW tourney but came up just short in claiming the automatic bid.
"It was a great college basketball game. Hard fought. Every possession both ways, I don't think we gave them much easy and they didn't give us much easy," Rose said. "For our team I've seen so much growth during the season. When you lose it stings, but that really was a terrific championship basketball game. Really a tribute to both teams."