Stay Connected with YourSeason
Boys Basketball: Kory Brown helps Elgin pound Buffalo Grove in opener
| Andrew A. Nelles~For Sun-Times Media |
Updated: November 21, 2011 10:39PM
Elgin did nothing to diminish its preseason status as one of the top teams in the Chicago area during Monday night’s season opener.
Playing against the host team at the Buffalo Grove Thanksgiving Tournament, the No. 21 Maroons wasted no time asserting their dominance in a 66-40 rout. Elgin scored the game’s first 10 points, and its lead never dipped below eight the rest of the way.
Senior Kory Brown had his way with the Bison, tallying a game-high 23 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. He got the Maroons fans off their feet when he drove the baseline for a powerful left-handed slam in the second quarter, but it was Elgin’s long-range shooting that stole the show as the team was a perfect 7-for-7 from beyond the arc in the second half.
“We’ve been beating up on each other in practice every day and we were kind of tired of it,” Brown said. “So when we finally got somebody else to beat up on and go head-to-head with, we were ready for it.”
Buffalo Grove’s only field goal of the first quarter came at the 3:47 mark as Elgin’s suffocating defense resulted in a 16-4 lead at the end of the period. The Maroons pushed their advantage to 27-11 by halftime.
The Bison committed 22 turnovers on the night and connected on only 17-of-52 attempts from the field for a 32.7 shooting percentage.
“(Elgin is) a high-pressure team and a high-intensity team,” Buffalo Grove senior Sam Wacker said. “They shut down the movement of the ball pretty well and they’re up in your face the whole game.”
Elgin’s Arie Williams drained three 3-pointers and finished with 15 points and Dennis Moore chipped in with 10 points. The Maroons shot a blistering 25-for-46 (54.3 percent) from the field.
With four starters back from last year’s 22-7 team, Elgin has lofty goals this season.
The first item on the list is defending its championship at the Buffalo Grove Tournament, and the Maroons can go a long ways toward accomplishing that by beating a solid Stevenson team in tonight’s second round.
“I was impressed with the way we came out,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “It was like a continuation of last season. We came out and looked like a team that has been playing together for years and they looked like a team that had some new parts.”
Luke Potnick led the Bison with 16 points and Wacker added nine points and eight rebounds.
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment