St. Charles East throttles Elgin

Granted, Elgin can't be considered an Upstate Eight River basketball power this year, but host St. Charles East delivered the message it had to Saturday night.

In wiping out the Maroons 85-47 to keep its conference record unblemished, St. Charles East (14-1, 6-0) can emphatically make the case that anyone thinking about achieving Upstate Eight River glory this year will have to figure out a way to beat the Saints. Otherwise, it won't happen.

Overcoming a slow start, the Saints got their perimeter game in gear and several pick-and-roll dives to the basket that resulted in point guard Cole Gentry's game-high 15 points and forward Mike Vyzral's 14 points and team-high eight rebounds. Jake Clodi came off the bench to drill three 3-pointers in chipping in 13 points, all in the second half.

But before anyone goes overboard in crowning the Saints as conference kingpins, St. Charles East coach Patrick Woods would like to see his club get back to clicking the way it did in destroying the field while ringing up a DeKalb Holiday Tournament title.

"With the 10-day layoff after the Christmas tournament and then two days off this week because of weather, we are not back where we were at before," Woods said. "Hopefully by next Friday we will, because that is a big game at Larkin."

If it is possible to have some concerns after an 85-47 game, Woods knew where to look.

"We had a bit of a slow start and didn't shoot particularly well today, shooting only 30 percent for 3s, but we did a nice job on the boards," Woods said.

In addition, the Saints racked up 10 second half fouls before Elgin had even one, which came at the 5:08 mark of the fourth quarter. A lot of those fouls came when Maroon ballhandlers were able to penetrate the Saints' defense.

Otherwise, there wasn't much to complain about as the Saints controlled the boards 38-26, got to the majority of the loose balls and overcame a 1-for-9 start at the 3-point line to eventually bury nine in the game. In addition, they were zinging the ball around to open teammates to the tune of 20 assists.

The Saints opened a 16-5 lead after one quarter behind 6 points from Vyzral and 5 from Jake Asquini.

Elgin (5-10, 1-5) never got closer than 10 points after Jakub Zajac tossed in a 3-pointer to trim the Saints' margin to 18-8. The Saints quickly built their margin to 20 points at 35-15 after Asquini tallied 5 more points in the second quarter and Vyzral added a three-point play that gave St. Charles East a 35-17 halftime lead.

"We just wanted to come out and play with good energy and get away with a win," Vyzral said. "There will be games when we shoot bad, but I thought we had good energy tonight and bounced back."

When Clodi found his range in the second half, the Saints were clicking on all cylinders in displaying the drive and kick-out offense that has helped them drive opposing coaches crazy with a deadly 3-point attack.

"We did start a little rough tonight, but as long as we are playing hard, the shots will start to fall," said Clodi, who called his game "average" even though he was 5-for-5 from the field.

Elgin coach Mike Sitter has more on his team's plate than just overcoming poor shooting nights.

"We had two game plans," Sitter said. "Offensively we wanted to make St. Charles work hard with multiple passes and we didn't care if we held the ball more than a minute, and defensively we wanted to guard the arc.

"We didn't do either one, so we deserved to lose by more than we did," Sitter said.

The Maroons need to completely change their mindset if they want to turn their season around, Sitter added. "Some people are not buying into it, and those people will not be playing basketball any more for Elgin High School."

Junior point guard Desmond Douglas led Elgin with 14 points, while Zajac added 10 to go with a team-high 8 rebounds.

Fourteen Saints got into the game, and 12 scored. Freshman Jason Hardy played in the fourth quarter and tallied 6 points on strong moves near the basket.

The Saints shot 50 percent from the floor in hitting 35 of 70 shots, while Elgin made only 14 field goals in 47 attempts for 29 percent.