Elgin cruises past North Boone to open tournament
The North Boone boys basketball team could not match Elgin's first half energy burst in Friday's opening pool play game of Burlington Central's 3rd Annual MLK Classic.
The Maroons exploded during the first 16 minutes of play for 45 points while holding the Vikings to 16 en route to a 71-46 win.
"What we've talked about lately is we don't always start games well. We tried from the opening tip (tonight) to try and take this team out of everything they wanted to run and make them play basketball," said Elgin coach Mike Sitter. "We did a nice job of not letting them get into any offense and our offense feeds off our defense."
During the first 2 quarters, Elgin (5-10) forced 13 turnovers and outrebounded the Vikings, 29-18.
"We had never seen that type of pressure from another team all year so I knew it would be a little difficult for us until we settled down and got a feel for the game," North Boone coach Matt Yarc said. "A lot of times we are the faster team. They sped us up so much we were almost playing a little bit out of control."
Dan Toolsie led the first half offense, sinking baskets on Elgin's first 3 possessions. North Boone controlled the opening tip, but Toolsie poked the ball away for an uncontested layup. Elgin's man-to-man defense then forced 2 straight turnovers that the senior forward converted into buckets.
Toolsie scored 16 of his game-high 21 points in the first 16 minutes of play. He also pulled down 9 rebounds.
"It was a lot of defense. I got my points off of steals and fast breaks," Toolsie said.
Elgin led 21-8 after the first quarter.
The Maroons found their 3-point touch in the second quarter. After not making a trey in the first 8 minutes, Elgin connected on 4 shots from beyond the arc in the second period including 3 from Trey Yarber to extend its lead to 45-16 at halftime. The junior tallied 12 points on the night, all from 3-pointers.
The Maroons let up on the gas in the third quarter scoring only 9 points to North Boone's 10. After a Roy Panthier (8 points) basket at the start of the frame, Elgin's offense was silent until Trevon Morris' put back with 1:48 left in the quarter.
"We didn't come out at halftime very well," Sitter said. "But things picked up at the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter."
Starting the fourth quarter with a 54-26 lead, Sitter gave playing time to all of his reserves. The team's last 9 points were scored on 3-point baskets by backups Joe Hoberg, Ben Pinsel and Ryan Lim.
Elgin scored all but 2 of its points from the field. North Boone (4-10) was whistled for 4 fouls giving the Maroons only 3 trips to the free throw line.
Britton Morris scored 13 points for the Vikings while teammate Joshua Hoffman chipped in 10.
Kaneland 63, Genoa-Kingston 59: The Knights (6-10) opened the Burlington Central MLK Classic with a win behind 15 points from Rhett Espe and 14 from Blake Feiza. Brett Wallner added 10 points for Kaneland and Kyle Stuart had 9.