Elk Grove thwarts South Elgin's plan
South Elgin boys basketball coach Matt Petersen had a good defensive scheme for controlling Elk Grove's offense.
"We knew that if we put pressure on them right from the start we could force the turnovers and get some scores," said Petersen. "But when the game started, it didn't happen. We made Elk Grove look real comfortable at the start of the game."
The Grenadiers hit six 3-point baskets in the first quarter on the way to finishing with 12. Add to that two old-fashioned 3-point plays and Elk Grove had a 25-17 lead after one quarter.
Dan Hadler scored 9 of his 20 points to go along with 7 rebounds in the Grenadiers' 82-71 win over the Storm at the 29th annual Chuck Mitchell Tournament held at Fenton High School. Elk Grove improved to 2-0 while South Elgin, which played inspired basketball in spots, fell to 1-1.
Eric Pillath led Elk Grove 22 points and connected on three 3s. Tyler Ingebrigtsen added all 12 of his points in the second half to go with 6 rebounds. Joey Gatziolis scored his 9 points in the first half and led the Grens in rebounds with 10. Elk Grove out-rebounded the Storm 39-30.
"Everyone did their jobs tonight," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman. "We knew at some point South Elgin would make a run at us. To our players' credit, they weathered the storm. We struggled at times with their full court pressure, which caused a lot of our (22) turnovers."
Elk Grove led at the half 43-34 and then built a 52-36 lead with six minutes left in the third quarter.
South Elgin's Justin Howard then took over by scoring 14 of his team's next 16 points. Howard, who finished with 18 points hit for 3 three points, a 3-point play and another basket to cut the lead to 54-52 with 2:12 left in the quarter.
Malco Odishoo hit for a 3 and Ingebrigtsen scored inside for a 59-52 Elk Grove lead before the Grens took a 59-54 lead headed into the fourth.
South Elgin could get no closer than 63-58, which came with 5:56 left in on a bucket from Matty Smith (17 points).
Elk Grove then went on a 11-0 run with Ingebrigtsen hitting for 5 points.
"I'm real excited about this team," said Hadler. "We have a lot of players to make a difference on this team each night. It will be like that all year. We have the ability to close out games which didn't happen very much last year. Last night against Fenton, I picked up three quick fouls and I was frustrated. I was able to right the ship tonight and it felt so good."
South Elgin, meanwhile, aims to learn from its experience against the Grens.
"We have the tools to be a real good team," said Petersen. "We just have to play at the pace we want to be successful. We just didn't work to get good shots in the fourth quarter."