Elkhorn beats Demons for first time in 16 tries
By Chris Bennett
Sports Correspondent
The Elks exorcised some Demons Jan. 20 in a Southern Lakes Conference boys high school basketball game at Burlington.
The Elks beat the Demons 58-48 for the program’s first win over Burlington in almost a decade.
Elkhorn played Tuesday at Delavan-Darien (9-4, 4-2 SLC) and plays Westosha Central (8-4, 6-1 SLC) tonight at home in SLC games.
Before Friday’s victory, Elkhorn was winless against Burlington since the teams joined the current incarnation of the Southern Lakes Conference in the 2009-10 school year.
That’s a span of 15 games, all conference losses.
Some teams have their kryptonite, and the Demons, a traditional SLC power and multiple-time champion during the last eight years, had the Elks’ number.
Elkhorn beat Burlington twice in non-conference play in the 2008-09 season. The Elks played in a previous lineup of the SLC and the Demons played in the Southeast Conference that season.
The Demons beat the Elks 76-71 Jan. 3 at Elkhorn in a SLC game.
The victory was significant for a program searching for a way to consistently finish atop the standings with teams like current powers Burlington and Westosha Central, along with larger schools like Lake Geneva Badger.
“We’re very happy with the win at Burlington,” Elks coach Josh Skatrud said. “By far the best win we have had in quite a while. I feel like it was a big barrier to get over, as they have had our number for almost eight years. We played a really good game on both ends of the floor.”
The Elks led 31-20 at halftime, and withstood a second-half rally in which the Demons outscored the Elks 28-27.
“At one point in the second half we were up by 17, and they had a really tough time even getting off a clean shot against our defense,” Skatrud said. “They made a run to cut it to six, but we responded with a couple of big baskets and we were able to stretch our lead back out.”
Ross Ingersoll led the Elks (7-5, 3-3 SLC) with 30 points. Alex Easterday added 18. Nick Klug led the Demons (8-7, 5-2 SLC) with 24 points.
“I’m very proud of the kids,” Skatrud said. “A couple of weeks ago we were really struggling, but they have battled through and really bought into the things that we asked of them.
“This is a big week for us, and hopefully we can keep our momentum going.”
