Team effort lifts South Elgin over East Aurora
Every member of first-year South Elgin coach Jim Cook's staff had multiple positives to share as the group gathered outside the visitor's locker room Friday at East Aurora.
The multitude of good reviews reflected the Storm's 64-51 Upstate Eight River Division boys basketball victory which had contributions from throughout the lineup.
"We like seeing what we call 'brotherly love,' everyone playing for each other," Cook said. "Reporters look at individuals, as coaches we always talk about team effort so I want everyone to get a pat on the back."
After the opening quarter, Cook may have been tempted to aim lower and use his foot as East Aurora (4-9, 0-3) got up by 6 at 13-7 before the opening quarter ended with the Tomcats ahead 16-12.
But the Storm (7-7, 2-1) surged in each of the other three quarters rallying for a 29-all halftime draw and outscored the Tomcats by 7 and 6 in the last two quarters. The majority of second-half baskets for South Elgin were fast breaks or lay-ins from underneath as the visitors nailed 51 percent (14-of-23) field goals.
"We like seeing everyone scoring because that means opponents have to guard all of us," Cook noted.
Six players shared the 15 points South put up in the third quarter to claim a 44-37 edge heading into the final eight minutes.
"Maybe we were a little too rusty at the start," South Elgin's Justin Howard proposed in a nod to a 13-day layoff in the schedule. "We got our focus back and our new coaching staff has really stressed playing together and we did a better job of getting quick outlet passes. We do that and our opponents have less time to set up their defense."
Howard had back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Storm draw even at intermission and finished with 11 points, one less than the dozen scored by both Anthony Lynch and Tyler Hankins. South Elgin also had 26 more from Matt Smith, Logan Atkins, Julian Lynch and David Binion.
"What's most important to me is filling whatever role is needed for us to win," Anthony Lynch said. "If it's scoring, rebounds, or defense, it's all about execution. Conference road wins are always good and this one will help us with postseason seeding."
The bulk of East Aurora's scoring came from three players as freshman Traevon Brown had a trio of 3-pointers as part of his game-high 19 points while Mike Stewart added 14 and Ron McBride scored 13.
"We should've been up at half, but we missed free throws and there were five times they (South Elgin) also missed free throws but got offensive rebounds," East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. "Senior leadership won the game for them in the second half.
"Traevon played well in spurts and Ron did a decent job on their big guy but we let them beat us with transition baskets," Jeffries said.
"No question we need to execute better on offense and people need to know where to be on defense," Nate Shead offered.
"Getting back on defense is the first thing and the second is knowing who to pick up especially on breaks," McBride said. "Extra work on free throws paid off for me (5-of-5), but I need to make more shots. Tonight we needed everyone making more shots."