St. Edward rolls over Elgin Academy

For most of the first quarter Tuesday, St. Edward's boys basketball team couldn't buy a basket. But when they finally got a few shots to fall, the Green Wave had little difficulty handling Elgin Academy, cruising to a 60-24 victory in the Westminster Christian Thanksgiving tournament.

A.J. Franklin hit a pair of 3-pointers sandwiched around a breakaway layup midway through the second period that seemed to ignite the Green Wave. Just like that, a tenuous 12-6 lead was 20-6 and the Wave never looked back.

"We got a lot of wide-open shots, they just weren't going in," said St. Edward coach P.J. White. "The wide open shots weren't going in, the layups weren't going in, the free throws weren't going in, it was all around, nothing was going in. I thought we could create some points off of our defense with some fast breaks, but the layups weren't going in.

"We laugh in practice because in practice it's nothing but net all the time, but get in a game and you tend to tense up a little bit and it doesn't go in. But that's why you play these games early and that's why we're happy to be here, so we can hopefully get all those jitters out of the way early."

After making just 3 of 18 shots in the first quarter, the Wave warmed up a bit to finish at 36 percent (21-of-59) for the game. Franklin led the way with 13 points. Sebastian Oquendo added 10 points off the bench for St. Edward (2-0).

Dylan Mlinarich had 6 points and 6 rebounds, while William Gaston and David Hill each had 6 points and 5 boards for the Green Wave. Led by those 3, the Wave held a 38-23 edge on the glass.

Jordan Hare led Elgin Academy with 6 points and 8 rebounds. Christian Rodriguez added 5 points, but no one else had more than 3 for the Hilltoppers.

St. Edward built the lead quickly, outscoring the Hilltoppers 21-6 in the second quarter and 16-4 in the third. The big cushion gave White a chance to give everybody some minutes: 16 Wave players saw action and 10 scored.