COLLINSVILLE – Collinsville used runs of 11-0 to start the second quarter and 8-0 at the start of the third, taking advantage of Metro-East Lutheran turnovers in going on to a 52-33 win over the Knights in a non-conference boys basketball game late Saturday afternoon at Vergil Fletcher Gym.
Metro-East started off well in taking a 13-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, but in the end, good Collinsville defense combined with the turnovers turned the game in the Kahoks’ favor.
“Pretty much, that’s the story,” said Knights’ head coach Anthony Smith, “but I don’t know if they were forced turnovers as much as we just didn’t take care of the ball. But that’s a part of the game, and we didn’t handle it well against Belleville East, we come out and play another team the same way, and we didn’t handle it well against them either. We’ve just got to get better with it.”
The Knights did get off to a good start, hitting shots and rebounding well in taking their early lead, but afterward, Collinsville went into their trademark full-court pressure defense, helping to cause many of the turnovers and allowing the Kahoks to take control of the game.
“It was just one of those things,” Smith said. “They scouted us, they know we had some pressure we work on it, but when it doesn’t work, they stop A, then you have to B, if they stop B, you have to do C. We had two key guys out, (Jeremiah) Neal got injured, Lumpkins got injured, so we’re playing shorthanded. So we’ve just got to make the adjustments and continue to get better.”
The Knights are now 8-4 on the year, and there’s still much to like about how the season’s going along for the team.
“It’s a bunch of battles we go through,” Smith said. “We play these games for a reason; Collinsville’s got a good club, (Tray) Swygeart plays hard, he does what he’s supposed to do. He gets downhill and makes plays. If you don’t stop it, it is what it is for us.
“We’ve got to have a mentality of guys on the same page and everybody’s playing for the name on the front instead of the name on the back, which will help us down the road. Right now, we’ve just got to wait; we’re 8-4 and we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and get ready for the holiday tournament at (Breese) Mater Dei (Catholic).”
The Kahoks moved the ball well against the Knights, which helped set up many scoring opportunities.
“We’re just trying to move the ball,” said Collinsville head coach Darin Lee, “and as I said, we got those big threes in the first half, and we did a pretty good job in our half-court offense; we didn’t force stuff that wasn’t there. We got crossed up on passes; he curled and he thought he was going to come straight up, things like that, we got ourselves crossed up. But other than that, our ball movement was pretty good.”
The Kahoks were able to come out of the first quarter to take control in the second with their run and never looked back.
“Well. we’ve got to start finishing layups,” Lee said. “We missed them last night, too (a 70-61 win over O’Fallon). We’ve got to finish layups, and we’ve got to keep moving the ball. We did make shots at the end of the second quarter. We got three threes, two from Devin (Davis), one from Jake (Wilkinson). Those kind of gave us some cushion, then we kind of went from there, and the second half, there’s no doubt the diamond press bothered them a lot.”
The good defense helped Collinsville tremendously as well.
“Our man-to-man defense is good,” Lee said. “We’re battling, I mean, we’re undersized with Matt Clark guarding, at times, they had (Bennett) Briles and (DaMarkus) Bean out, those guys are big. And we battled them, did a nice job. I thought everyone guarded well, we didn’t give them many easy baskets.”
The win was important to the Kahoks, as they now have won three straight, taking games at Granite City on Tuesday and O’Fallon on Friday.
“We needed them,” Lee said. “We were playing a little better, we’re shooting it a little better from the outside. So that’s been the main difference for us. We’ve had a couple of guys, Deante Franklin, we’ve given him a little more playing time, and he’s really stepped up and helped us off the bench, and Jake Wilkinson, two guys who weren’t playing as much minutes early in the season.”
The game started off with the Kahoks taking a 2-0 lead before the tip as the Knights were called for a technical foul due to a scorebook violation, and from there, Collinsville took a 5-2 lead on a three-point play from Swygeart and went ahead 8-4 before the Knights went on 9-0 run, with Devan Rush scoring five of the next seven points, the other basket coming from T.J. Harris to give Metro-East an 11-8 lead. A basket from Jaeden Rush gave the Knights a 13-8 lead after the first quarter.
The Kahoks began to assert control in the second, as Swygeart scored the quarter’s first five points, with a three-point play tying the game 13-13, then baskets from Franklin and Davis gave Collinsville a 17-13 lead. A basket from Clark extended the run to 11-0 before a pair of free throws by Bean made the score 19-15. A pair of threes from Davis and a three at the buzzer from Wilkinson gave Collinsville a 9-3 run at the end of the half to give the Kahoks a 28-18 halftime lead.
The second half started out with some sloppy play by both sides before a Wilkinson basket and six straight points from Swygeart gave Collinsville a 36-18 lead before a pair of baskets from Bean and Devan Rush cut the lead to 36-22. A basket and two free throws from Jaeden Rush cut the lead to 36-26, but the Kahoks scored before the buzzer to take the lead to 38-26 after three quarters.
Collinsville iced the game in the fourth, outscoring the Knights 17-7 in the period as Swygeart scored five points on a three and an inside layup to help the Kahoks take their 52-33 win.
Swygeart led the Kahoks with 20 points, while Davis had 12 points, Wilkinson had nine points, Franklin scores seven points and Clark had four points. The Knights were led by Devan Rush’s 11 points, while Jaeden Rush had eight points, both Bean and Briles had six points each and Harris had two points.
The Kahoks go to 6-3 on the year and play at Normal Community Wednesday night in a 7:30 p.m. tip before hosting the return of their Prairie Farms Holiday Classic Dec. 27 in a first-round game against Wasilla, Alaska at 6:30 p.m. Lee is looking ahead to the challenges against the Ironmen and the tournament.
“it’ll be a tough game against Normal,” Lee said. “It could be the best team we play all year. We’re looking forward to that (the Classic). We hopefully can find our way to the championship. It was a good performance, especially defensively on the diamond press. It was good.”
The Knights are now 8-4 and next play against host Mater Dei in their Holiday tournament Dec. 29 at 6 p.m. Smith is also looking ahead to the challenges of the Mater Dei tournament.
“We should be able to compete down there,” Smith said. “I think we’ve got the sixth seed, so the same thing goes. You don’t get any respect until you earn it.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
