Men’s basketball: Waubonsee crushes ECC
By Bill Kindt For Sun-Times Media February 5, 2013 10:40PM
Updated: February 6, 2013 12:22AM
This was a perfect example on how quickly the worm can turn.
When Waubonsee Community College opened the Skyway Conference season at Elgin on Jan. 13 it struggled out of the gate.
In fact, the Chiefs trailed the Spartans at halftime before pulling out a hard-fought 64-50 victory.
There was none of that Tuesday at Erickson Hall where the Chiefs sped to a 36-10 halftime lead and went on to crush the Spartans, 69-38.
So, what was the difference?
“It was our defensive energy,” WCC head coach David Heiss said. “We really got after it, pushed the ball in transition. Even on misses, we pushed the ball.”
All of it made for scoring runs of 16-0, 15-3 and 14-1 before things turned somewhat sloppy the final eight minutes after Waubonsee (17-6, 7-1) bolted to a 61-19 lead.
The Chiefs were totally dominating the first 20 minutes. They hit 48 percent (15-of-31) of their shots from the field, stole the ball six times and outrebounded the Spartans 25-15.
Oh yes, Elgin dug its own grave by hitting a frozen 10 percent (3-of-29) shots from the field.
“I was very happy, particularly the first half,” Heiss said. “That’s only the second time they’ve (the Spartans) been blown out.”
Every Chief had a hand in the rout with Derrick Johnson and Marcus Franklin (13 rebounds) sharing game scoring honors with 16 each. But Nick Townes scored 12 points and Ricardo Martin added 11.
Townes also had four assists and two steals and he didn’t turn the ball over once while playing the point guard.
“I thought he was the difference,” Heiss said. “We’ve working on him being more vocal and recognizing when we need to pull the ball out. I thought he did a great job on both ends of the court.”
All of it was accomplished with leading scorer D.J. Vaughn (18 points per game) having an off night with two points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Women’s game
Elgin 68, Waubonsee 54 — The Spartans (17-6, 7-1) hit on 20 of 25 free throws to turn back the Chiefs (9-15, 2-6).
Tesa Alderman scored 13 points and LaDesha Nelson added 11 for Waubonsee while Alex Dumoulin had 21 points and 16 rebounds to pace Elgin.
