Fleming, Glenbard North blow past Elgin
Elgin didn’t have an answer for Glenbard North and its senior guard Jeremiah Fleming on Saturday night during a 98-76 loss in the third-place game at the Elgin Holiday Tournament.
Fleming racked up 8 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 34 points to lead North in a high-scoring affair.
“I just came out and my teammates gave me the ball right away and kept yelling at me the whole time to keep shooting,” Fleming said. “I was feeling it. Monday night I was off and then I got used to the rim.”
Fleming nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game and hit two more in the quarter as North raced out to a 28-14 lead heading into the second.
“We don’t have a lot of varsity experience back so starts are very big for our mental psyche,” said Elgin coach Mike Sitter. “When we’ve had slow starts it’s carried over for the game so we need to make sure we get off to better starts than we did today.”
Down 47-29 late in the second, Elgin (5-8) gained some momentum by closing the half on an 8-2 run to head into halftime down 49-37.
Behind a pair of baskets from Kiko Mari and a 3-pointer from Desmond Sanders, the Maroons began the second half on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 49-44. However, Glenbard North responded by going on a 19-6 run that saw Fleming connect on another 4 3-pointers.
“We knew they would come out hard after halftime,” Fleming said. “We just had to match their intensity.”
Chip Flanigan scored 8 of his 23 points in the fourth as North tallied 30 points in the frame, while flirting with the 100-point barrier.
“It felt like a third-place game,” Sitter said. “Two teams that both thought they could be playing in the championship game. There wasn’t a lot of defense and they had a lot more offensive firepower than we did.”
Isaiah Butler led Elgin with 18 points and 5 rebounds. Sanders and Donte Harper each added 12 points.
Kendall Holbert netted 17 points for the Panthers, who shot a whopping 38-for-60 (63 percent) from the floor.
“The good thing is we’re finally finding out what our identity is and figuring out our strengths and weaknesses,” Sitter said. “We have a good identity and self awareness going into the second half (of the season).”