Elgin moves on

Streamwood pitcher Mike Diebold earned the Game 1 win in a doubleheader sweep of host St. Charles North on Saturday.
karen naess | for the courier-news

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CARPENTERSVILLE -- Come postseason time, an ugly win is just as rewarding as any other kind of victory.

Fifth-seed Elgin proved that point Monday, grinding its way to a 62-43 win against No. 4 Streamwood in the Dundee-Crown Class 4A Regional play-in game.

It was far from a masterpiece for the Maroons, who combined for only two field goals in the second and third quarters and finished the contest shooting 11 of 43 (25.6 percent) from the field. However, Elgin (11-16) more than made up for its shooting woes by steadily marching to the free-throw line to connect on 38 of 53 charity attempts.

Senior Tom Roth led the parade at the line, finishing with a game-high 23 points, 18 of which came on free throws. The Maroons avenged a nine-point loss to the Sabres on Friday in the process, earning a date with top seed Dundee-Crown (19-5) in the regional semifinals tonight.

"We just brought some more defense today, and we knocked down some free throws, so that helped," Roth said. "Everyone stepped up and hit their free throws, and that's basically what wins games in regionals."

Elgin's hard-nose game plan didn't start to yield results until the second half, when the Maroons outscored the Sabres 39-19. However, the ground work for the late surge was laid in the first two quarters.

Early on, Elgin consistently went to senior forward Marcus Redburg in the post. Although the possessions weren't always fruitful on the scoreboard, the Maroons were able to get Streamwood's inside players in foul trouble. Meanwhile, Elgin's zone defense frustrated the Sabres into poor shots.

Despite the plodding pace, Streamwood did enjoy a 29-23 lead when senior Brian Brauer hit a 3-pointer with 5:39 left in the third quarter. That lead slowly eroded, though, as Elgin went on a 23-8 run over the next 10:54 to open a nine-point lead with 2:45 left.

The Sabres never recovered and their frustration boiled over in the final minutes when Brauer and senior Tem Esikiel were charged with technical fouls. Streamwood (13-14) committed seven turnovers and made only 3 of 14 shots in the final quarter.

The meltdown marked a disappointing end to the season for the Sabres, who reached the 10-win mark for the first time since 2000.

"I'm embarrassed," Streamwood coach Tim Jones said. "I thought we had a pretty good attitude going out there, but our cooler heads did not prevail.

"It's very disappointing. I thought things were going in the right direction. There's a lot of positives from this season, going from six (wins) to 13, which is great. I think we've got a great nucleus coming back next year, but it's a sour way to end. We just didn't conduct ourselves like gentlemen on the court tonight."

Esikiel led the Sabres with 17 points and eight rebounds. Streamwood's all-time leading scorer, Esikiel finishes his three-year varsity career with 1,460 points. Junior Marcus Lewis added nine points while Brauer chipped in eight points for the Sabres, who shot 14 of 47 (29.8 percent) from the field and attempted 16 free throws.

Redburg finished with 11 points and seven rebounds for Elgin while teammate Al Kanlic tallied eight points. Joe Wade added six points and a team-best nine rebounds.

"That might be the best job all year we did of executing our game plan," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "(Marcus) had a lot of touches down low and got some people in foul trouble.

"We were aggressive on the offensive end. Sometimes we settle for jump shots, but not tonight."