South Elgin drives past Riverside-Brookfield
Spread the floor and drive the gaps.
Finish strong for a layup or dish off when the defense rotates.
Or just beat the defense altogether with a backdoor cut.
It was a simple plan, and it's how the South Elgin boys basketball team dissected Riverside-Brookfield's defense Wednesday in a 69-64 victory at the 37th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York.
“We just take what the defense gives us,” said South Elgin senior guard Sam Sutter, who led all scorers with 24 points. “Luckily, they gave us some lanes and we took advantage of it.”
South Elgin (7-5) will play St. Ignatius (8-2) for fifth-place today at 4 p.m., thanks to the way the Storm burned the Bulldogs for layup after layup, particularly during an 11-0 second-quarter run that expanded their lead from a point to 12 in a span of 150 seconds.
The second-quarter microburst responsible for the Storm surge featured a turnaround jumper in the paint by a driving Martin Duarte (7 points), a backdoor pass from Sutter for a reverse layup by Matthew Downing (6 points), Duarte's 3-pointer and a pair of inside buckets from hardscrabble forward Dillon Gardner, who notched 4 assists and 6 rebounds to go with his 17 points.
“My role was to get everyone involved in the offense, get everyone some open looks, pitch in a little bit and get some nice drives,” said Gardner, a 6-1 senior. “If a guy helps over, I just dish it and get an easy basket.”
Riverside-Brookfield (7-3) was powered by 23 points from Lewis University-bound senior guard Ryan Jackson, 13 points by 6-4 senior guard Charlie Morrissey and 11 points and 6 rebounds by 6-foot-9 senior Alex Dziagwa.
But the Bulldogs' issue was their inability to stop Sutter, Gardner and company from spreading out and making cuts and drives for layups.
“Their spread offense is very effective and they beat us on some back cuts,” R-B coach Tom McCloskey said. “They got to loose balls in the second quarter and they did a great job.”
“I thought we were getting a lot of paint touches off our drives and that's what sparked it,” South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said of the 11-0 run. “We just kept driving in the paint, just trying to suck those guys in, create and getting the drive and the closeout.
“I thought that opened up some really big gaps for our offense.”
R-B trailed 32-20 at the half but moved within 38-35 on a three-point play by Dziagwa with 3:15 left in the third quarter. Sutter later responded with a personal 7-0 run to restore South Elgin's lead to double digits early in the fourth quarter.
Protecting a 9-point cushion, the Storm took the air out of the ball with three minutes remaining. They sank 13-of-19 free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the Bulldogs at bay.
A victory over St. Ignatius would give South Elgin a 3-1 record in the 16-team tournament and a fifth-place finish. The previous best showing for the Storm at York was a sixth-place finish in 2008.
“We've never had a team go 3-1 here,” Sutter said. “If we go 3-1, we'll be bragging to the older guys.”
St. Ignatius blasted St. Charles East Wednesday, 66-38, behind 24 points and 13 rebounds from Nnanna Egwu, a 6-10, 230-pound Illinois recruit ranked among the top 100 high school prospects nationally by multiple scouting services.