Another tough loss for Elgin

They may be 2 weeks out from March Madness, but as it stands now after a 56-51 loss to East Aurora Tuesday, the Elgin boys basketball team feels like a time machine took it back to January.

The Maroons' (16-10) model of inconsistency appeared once again at Chesbrough Field House as Elgin, which lost by 34 to Jacobs Saturday, struggled from the field and gave up not only a 7-point lead, but a 4-point halftime cushion and a 2-point edge after 3 quarters. The Tomcats (8-16) outscored Elgin 24-17 during the final 8 minutes, including a 15-10 advantage in the final 1:55 to steal one in Upstate Eight crossover action.

"Right now it feels like a repeat to January, and that's a shame," Maroons coach Mike Sitter said of his team's fifth loss in 7 games. "We didn't have a good effort offensively or defensively. We didn't move our feet or make the extra pass. We didn't play with any intensity and East Aurora played harder."

The Maroons shot 4-for-20 from 3-point and finished with a 33.3 percent clip from the field along with 21 turnovers. Besides Courtese Cooper's 10 points, 16 rebounds and 4 blocks, Desmond Douglas led all scorers with 27 points. But even his 15-for-17 effort from the free-throw line and his late fourth quarter heroics weren't enough to get Elgin off the snide with only 3 games left in the regular season.

"This one hurts, and the last one hurt, too," Douglas said. "We have so many ups and downs, it's like a roller coaster season. We have really high highs and really low lows, I guess it's all about how we respond and it starts tomorrow in practice."

East Aurora caught fire in the fourth thanks to two 3-pointers from reserve guard Michael Stewart. His first gave East a 36-34 lead with 5:10 remaining, just its second lead of the night to that point.

Douglas answered with a 3-point play to get the lead back with 5:05 left. He'd push the Maroons' lead to 3 when fouled on a 3-point attempt on the subsequent possession.

But a 10-2 run thereafter by the Tomcats, which included Stewart's last 3 with 1:55 left, helped East gain a 44-41 edge and the lead for good. Stewart finished with 14, while freshman Traevon Brown led East with 18 points.

"They started knocking down some bigger shots," Douglas said. "Some of the threes they weren't hitting in the first half that we were giving them, they started knocking them down in the second half. We didn't adjust so good to that."

It didn't help that East Aurora went 13-for-14 from the line in the fourth despite shooting 34.6 percent from the field.

"We just told them if they continue to play with the intensity we were playing on defense and made our layups and free throws, we'd be in good shape," Tomcats coach Wendall Jeffries said.