Boys Basketball: De La Salle shoots past St Francis

Updated: December 28, 2011 9:54PM

Good luck stopping a speeding meteor – much less five of them.

The top-seeded De La Salle Meteors (9-1) blistered St. Francis with transition baskets in Wednesday’s Jack Tosh/York Tournament quarterfinals, racing away to a 59-39 win and a meeting with Naperville North in the tournament semifinals at 5:45 p.m. Thursday.

“We got a lot of steals, and off rebounds we were pushing it up the court,” said Alvin Ellis, who matched teammate Gavin Schilling with 16 points to lead the Meteors.

Ellis had three transition layups in a row (one on a nice end to end drive) late in the second quarter to expand a 21-13 lead to 16 points by halftime, and De La Salle never broke stride from there.

“I love running the floor,” Ellis said. “Anytime I see a break or an opening I just call for the ball and my teammates look ahead. They know I’m going down there looking for dunks.”

Ellis, Schilling and Alex Foster (12 points, two blocks) combined for five slam dunks between them, but coach Thomas White was especially impressed by the Meteors’ unselfishness.

“We played more team ball,” White said. “Sometimes they play for the people in the crowd instead of people on the bench. But when we share the ball we play our best. It doesn’t matter who does what as long as we’re all working well together.”

Guard Demarcus Richardson (11 points) was a fourth scorer in double figures for the Meteors. St. Francis was led by Nick Donati (nine points) and Ryan Coyle (eight points, eight rebounds).

“We seemed to gel today,” White said. “Yesterday (in a 10-point quarterfinal win) we were trying not to show all the stuff we can do. It’s hard to play a game that way. Today we were able to just play and make everybody adjust to what we do.”

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