Elgin beats Geneva to capture share of UEC River title
By Erik Jacobsen For Sun-Times Media February 21, 2012 10:48PM
Elgin's Cortez Scott drives past Geneva's Brendan Leahy on Tuesday in Elgin. | Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 21, 2012 10:58PM
Elgin High was an all-around winner Tuesday night.
First, the Maroons drilled visiting Geneva 43-30 to claim a share of the Upstate Eight River championship, giving the program back-to-back league titles for the first time since 1987.
Then moments after the game Elgin athletic director Paul Pennington and St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin engaged in a coin flip to decide which of the UEC River co-champions would host the league’s upcoming crossover championship game. The coin came up heads, making Elgin (22-3, 9-3) a winner again and setting up an intriguing matchup against UEC Valley champion Metea Valley (22-3) in the league’s showcase event at 7:15 p.m. Friday at Chesbrough Field House.
“I only scouted Metea, so that’s good for me,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “But honestly, we were going to be conference champions either way.
“The last several games we’ve been putting goals on the wall like take two charges, hold the other team to less than 10 offensive rebounds, have less than 10 turnovers. Our only goal tonight was to win conference, and the guys went out and did that from the opening tip.”
The Maroons also avenged a 66-64 triple-overtime loss at Geneva in early December. The 66 points scored by the Vikings in the first meeting still stands as the most allowed by Elgin all season, but the rematch was a much different story as Geneva (13-12, 7-5) matched its season-low scoring output while losing its third in a row.
Senior guard Cortez Scott led the way for Elgin with a game-high 18 points. With the Vikings devoting considerable attention to Maroons standout Kory Brown, Scott picked apart Geneva’s zone defense in the first quarter by draining three three-pointers and scoring 11 of his team’s 15 points.
“Coach told me to shoot with confidence, and that’s what I did tonight,” Scott said. “We’re a pretty fast team, so we’re able to get to the gaps (in the defense).”
The Maroons led 17-14 after Geneva’s Ryan Willing sank a pair of free throws with 5:06 left in the second quarter, but the Vikings didn’t score again in the half and went into the break trailing 22-14. The offensive drought continued after the intermission as Geneva scored only two points in the third quarter and trailed 32-16 going into the fourth.
The Vikings made a meager 10-of-37 shots from the field on the night, getting a pair of three-pointers from reserves late in the fourth quarter to help make the score respectable. Geneva went over 19 minutes with only one made field goal during one particularly dismal stretch that lasted from early in the second quarter to late in the fourth.
“We just really struggled to get the ball in good scoring areas,” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “(Elgin) had great pressure on us and they covered our shooters on the perimeter. For us the ball movement was little slow and we just didn’t get into a good offensive flow.”
Connor Chapman paced the Vikings with 12 points, eight of which came in the first quarter.
Elgin got eight points and four assists from Arie Williams and seven points from Dennis Moore while winning its sixth in a row. Brown rarely had the ball in his hands and finished with only four points, but he did contribute five blocks and seven rebounds.
“They played a diamond-and-one on Kory, and he was able to swallow his ego and stand in the corner and let us play four-on-four away from him,” Sitter said. “Cortez Scott and everybody else had a real big night doing that.”
Added Brown: “I have my mind set on winning, and I don’t care if I score 40 or four. We won the game by 13 points and I’m just fine with that.”
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