Elgin beats Streamwood to snap losing streak

The one consistent thing the Elgin boys basketball team did during its four-game losing streak was play pretty good defense.

That didn’t change Saturday evening. The result did.

The Maroons broke their losing streak with a 51-37 Upstate Eight River Division victory over host Streamwood.

“We defended our butt off in every one of those games,” Maroons coach Mike Sitter said of the losing streak. “The defense is there. If we can find consistent offense, which we found in the second half tonight, we’ll be tough to beat down the stretch.”

Elgin (10-10, 2-6) held the Sabres to 11 first-half points. Streamwood (9-16, 1-8) had 15 turnovers and shot 5-for-14. The Maroons weren’t much better, going 5-for-18 from the floor and turned the ball over 13 times, but led 18-11 at halftime.

Isaiah Butler gave Elgin a second scoring option, other than Arie Williams, in the second half. Butler hit a pair of 3-pointers during an 8-0 third-quarter run that extended the Maroons’ lead to 31-20 with 2:15 remaining in the third. The junior scored 8 points in the quarter and 14 in the second half.

Williams, obviously the focus of every opponent, had only 5 shots, but scored a game-high 19 points. He hit two 3-pointers and went 13-for14 from the free-throw line.

“We had to go get off of it,” Williams said of the losing skid. “I felt like that if we didn’t win this game it’s kind of like a curse that we couldn’t get off the losing streak. It’s nice to get back and winning.”

The Sabres didn’t get any closer than 9 points after the Maroons’ third-quarter run. They shot just 33 percent (14-for-42). Jacob Siewert led Streamwood with 10 points. Vince Williams added 6.

“Offensively we’re just not in sync at times,” Sabres’ coach Tim Jones said. “Elgin just played tougher than we did. They played tougher defensively than us.”