Boys Basketball: Alvin Ellis powers De La Salle to win

Updated: December 28, 2011 12:56AM

Alvin Ellis provided a high-flying start to De La Salle’s opening-round win Tuesday in the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York.

Ellis scored 12 of his team-high 16 points in the first quarter, including a one-handed dunk over a Perspectives-Calumet opponent, as the top-seeded Meteors built an early 21-13 lead en route to a 58-48 win.

“That’s the way Alvin plays,” De La Salle coach Tom White said. “He can hit threes, attack the basket, he hits his free throws, dunks the ball – he does a lot of good things and is so explosive off the dribble.”

Ellis also had four assists, and teamed with inside dominator Alex Foster (14 points, six blocked shots) and Gavin Schilling (11 points) to form a formidable front line.

“We play good high-low passing the ball, and overall have great team chemistry,” Schilling said. “That helps us do well on the court.”

When Alex, Alvin and Gavin are playing like that, it’s a good thing,” White said.

Guard Demarcus Richardson had five assists and five steals for the Meteors (8-1), who play in the York quarterfinals at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Perspectives-Calumet’s Brandon Taylor led all scorers with 18 points, and Yehosua Craig added 15. The Warriors outscored De La Salle 30-27 over the last 20 minutes of the game.

“We came out ready to play, then we kind of let go and they came back at us,” Schilling said.

“It was a rugged game a little bit,” White said. “You try to get everybody on the same page after a couple days off. They were on their game and we were not as smooth as we wanted to be. That was a tough one, but we’re happy to get in that top eight (quarterfinals) and now let’s go from there.”

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