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St. Charles East beats Elgin by 20

After seeing its 32-23 halftime lead shrink to two in the opening minutes of the second half, St. Charles East's boys basketball team quickly regrouped.

Juniors Justin Hardy and Alec Champine kicked off a 13-0 run with back-to-back 3-pointers as the Saints (13-6, 5-2) built their lead to 49-34 in the latter stages of the third quarter on the way to a 64-44 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over Elgin Friday night in St. Charles.

Champine scored 7 of his 9 points in the third quarter, while Hardy and sophomore guard Nate Ortiz chipped in with 5 points apiece as the Saints extended their lead to double digits heading into the final period.

What was the difference?

"Energy," said Ortiz, who finished with 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. "We're a team that runs on each other's energy. We're a team that runs on confidence. Getting out and pushing it is something that we've struggled at all season so to get the chance against a team like was really good."

"One of the issues we've had is pace of play," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "We got the pace down tonight. We still have to work on the space part of things but I was happy with our energy and effort, and you saw a lot of new guys out there contributing, too."

Guys like junior guard Jude Clodi, who drained a pair of 3-pointers - the first one tying the score at 17-17 early in the second quarter and the second coming less than a minute later to put the Saints up 22-17.

"Jude has been working hard in practice," said Woods. "We felt we owed it to him to give him an opportunity and I thought he did really well with it."

Senior forward Wade Kyle added 7 points while junior guard Zach Robinson had 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals as the Saints' bench outscored Elgin's reserves 24-9.

"Wade did a great job," Woods said of Kyle. "He has been putting extra time in with his shot and it showed tonight."

Hardy led the Saints with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals despite feeling a bit under the weather.

"If we're going to be successful, we can't just rely on Justin (Hardy)," said Woods. "We need what happened tonight."

Latrell Hudson and Timothy Wolf paced the Maroons (11-10, 2-6) with 13 and 11 points, respectively, while Courtese Cooper added 9 points, 5 blocked shots and 4 rebounds.

"We don't sustain very well," said Elgin coach Mike Sitter. "I think we need a little more leadership on the court."

Elgin's 7-0 third-quarter burst featured a pair of baskets by Wolf and a 3-pointer from Hudson.

"Everything is good and everybody is celebrating when we go on a 7-0 run to start the half but as soon as we give up 10 straight points, then the game is over," said Sitter. "We need to get a little mentally tougher."

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