Elgin defeats St. Charles North for title
Sensing the inevitable with 2:48 remaining in Elgin’s showdown against visiting St. Charles North, the Elgin student section launched into a chant Maroons fans have waited 10 years to sing:
“Con-ference champ-ions! Con-ference champ-ions!”
Elgin won its first boys basketball title in the Upstate Eight Conference since the 2000-01 season Wednesday night when the Maroons took down the North Stars by a 66-50 margin at Chesbrough Field House, thereby clinching at least a share of the River Division title.
Elgin (19-5, 9-2) can claim the UEC River title outright with a win at Streamwood on Friday, Feb. 25. The Maroons shared the 2000-01 title with DeKalb.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Elgin junior Kory Brown, who led the Maroons with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals and 2 blocked shots. “The adrenaline is still flowing through all of us as a team. It’s like I’m connected to everybody right now. I can feel their vibe. It’s just exciting to get to this point.
“We want to keep this rolling and be 21-5 heading into regionals and keep it going from there. We want to keep the surprises coming.”
The win completed Elgin’s season sweep of St. Charles North (13-12, 7-3), which had its height advantage in the post nullified due to early foul trouble and solid Elgin defense.
North Stars 6-foot-7 center Kyle Nelson already had 2 fouls when he was whistled for his third with 3:48 left in the second quarter. Nelson was then given a technical foul — his fourth personal — and remained tethered to the bench until the start of the fourth quarter. He finished with 7 points and 3 rebounds.
Elgin’s bench and Elgin junior Gerardo Mojica were also given technicals for complaining about foul calls. All three technical fouls were assessed within a 90-second span of the second quarter.
Though St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said he considered the costly technical on Nelson an overreaction, he didn’t pin the loss on it.
“I think we got beat in every phase of the game: focus, playing hard, playing smart,” Poulin said. “All the clichés you can come up with Elgin did them better than we did as far as playing winning basketball. I’m thoroughly disappointed, but it doesn’t mean we’re done believing in these guys. We know we can play.
“I thought we came out and just didn’t value the basketball. We threw it around and threw it to them.”
The North Stars, who were led by 17 points from forward Josh Mikes, finished with 24 turnovers to Elgin’s 13. St. Charles North committed 14 turnovers in the first half, but remained within striking distance of the lead, 30-26, at intermission.
However, Elgin scored the first 4 points of the third quarter when Brown and Dennis Moore (14 points) capitalized on turnovers.
The Maroons moved to a 10-point lead for the first time with 3:16 left in the third quarter when Brown passed to Arie Williams on the perimeter for a 3-pointer. It was the first 3-point field goal of the game for Elgin after 10 misses.
Cortez Scott’s buzzer beater from the lane gave the Maroons a 48-37 lead after three quarters, and the North Stars never came closer than 7 points the rest of the way as Elgin sank 14 of 18 free throws in the final period. The Maroons made 28 of their 36 free-throw attempts in the game, led by a 10-of-12 performance by Williams (15 points).
Once the teams shook hands, the Maroons were mobbed by their student section in a center-court celebration.
“We’ve been making history all year, but we can’t settle for this conference championship,” Williams said. “We want to do more. This just makes us want to get through regionals, sectionals and the supersectional all the more.”