St. Charles East shares UEC River title
If the uncommon hourlong bus ride to Chesbrough Field House in Elgin had remotely messed with St. Charles East's juju prior to its 70-39 win over the host Maroons Wednesday, the trek back home in the lousy weather that gave the Saints little time to warm up was still that much sweeter knowing that on the west side of Elgin in the same hour, even more magic occurred.
Just before the Saints (22-3) boarded the bus back home, coach Pat Woods announced Larkin was ahead by 8 points in the fourth quarter on Geneva to a bevy of cheers. The Royals went on to upset then-Upstate Eight River leader Geneva 57-52, which allowed East a part of the River crown after all, with Geneva as co-champion, at 12-2.
“I said at the end of the year there was no one who was going to run the table in conference. Our conference is too strong this year, beating up on each other,” Woods said. “Obviously everyone always wants to win the title outright but I think with the year we've had — and credit Geneva for having a good year as well — there's no pride lost in sharing the title. I think we both had great years and it'll be interesting.
“Maybe they'll want to put it all on the line in the regional. I'm wide open for something like that if it were to come down to it. Next week's going to be fun regardless of what happens. It'll be another great test for us.”
That matchup can occur if seeds hold next Friday in Geneva, but the test against the Maroons (6-22, 2-12) was a bit sour in the first half. East only led 26-15 at intermission on 9 of 26 shooting but exploded for 27 points in the third quarter as Elgin had no answer for 6-foot-8 center John Bronec. The senior scored 9 of his game-high 14 points in the third quarter to go along with his game-high 9 rebounds as the Saints woke up and rediscovered their brand of basketball — sharing the ball en route to 23 assists on 28 made baskets.
“We should be ready to play and play harder than we did (at the start), that's what we talked about at halftime and obviously we came out in the third quarter and outscored them 27-14,” said Woods of his team's fourth-straight win. “We scored more points in the third quarter than we did in the first half.”
And Elgin coach Mike Sitter echoed that point. The Maroons, led by Tim Wolf's 11 points, saw their defense collapse in the third after it helped the Saints into 9 first half turnovers.
“We gave up 26 in the first half and 27 in the third quarter, we don't sustain anything; we haven't sustained anything all year,” Sitter said. “We have poor leadership on our team and that shows.”
Evan DiLeonardi added 11 points while freshman Justin Hardy dumped in 9 and Jeremy Champine added 7 off the bench as 12 different Saints scored. East bounced back from a cold first half with a 50 percent clip from the field on 34 shots in the second half.
“Our energy wasn't there, (we) just needed a couple reps in, a couple shots up. And then once it started to fall we just went off,” Bronec said. “I think it was just our energy coming out and just our game plan from halftime. Just be relaxed and make shots.”
Desmond Douglas scored 9 points for the Maroons while Jakob Zajac chipped in 7. But 21 turnovers on senior night spoiled one of their better first halves.
“It's the most we've communicated on defense all year long,” Sitter said of the first 16 minutes in Elgin's eighth-straight defeat. “And we knew they'd go into halftime and make adjustments to how we were playing them and we talked about how we wanted to do it and came out in the second half and did absolutely none of it. So that's on us.”