Elk Grove accelerates past Wheeling

Elk Grove put its foot on the gas pedal and didn't let up Friday night at Wheeling.

The Grenadiers hit 5 of their first 6 three-point attempts - the only miss being a half court heave at the first-quarter buzzer - to run away with a 77-56 Mid-Suburban East victory.

And according to senior guard Dan Hadler, who led the Grens with 18 points, it was the memory of a past defeat that motivated his team.

"We lost a tough one (to Palatine) in the final game of the York Holiday Tournament," said Hadler, "so it felt so good to come out tonight and run the floor and get everyone involved."

"Everyone from 1 to 15 contributed, and it does a lot for our confidence to come out and play as well as we did."

Six-foot-6 senior forward Tyler Ingebrigtsen had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Elk Grove, while Nick Janulis led the Wildcats with 11 points.

"Elk Grove is a tough team," said Wheeling coach Anthony Como. "They did everything we thought they'd do and they did it very well."

"We didn't match their energy early," added Como. "We were chasing 20 (points) the whole game, and when you do that you're going to have a tired team, and that's what we were."

The Grens rolled to a 21-8 lead after one period, and a long 3 from Fulton Wingba just before halftime extended the visitor's lead to 24 points at intermission.

Wheeling trailed by a boatload midway through the third quarter but used an 11-0 run, capped by a rebound an layup from junior forward Dylan Draka, to get back within striking distance.

But Elk Grove quickly extended the lead on a 3 point play from Ingebrigtsen, and Wheeling couldn't get much closer despite 5 points in the fourth quarter from Ryan Caulfield, who scored 10 overall.

Sophomore Jalen Dennis pitched in with 6 points for Wheeling, while junior Joey Gatziolis scored 14 for the Grens.

"We got our inside game going early," said Gatziolis, "and when they started to collapse, we kicked it outside to our 3-point shooters."

Seven different players connected from behind the arc for Elk Grove including Hadler, Ingebrigtsen, Wingba, Dipen Patel, Malco Odishoo, Bradley Hubly and Isaiah Curiel.

"This is definitely the best we've shot the ball all year," said Gatziolis.