EDWARDSVILLE – East St. Louis lost to Edwardsville 53-45 on Tuesday night at Edwardsville, but the future looks bright for the young Flyers team.
The Flyers put forth a strong effort despite the defeat to a talented Edwardsville boys squad.
East St. Louis Head Boys Coach Mark Chambers said: “I looked at it, I had two juniors and two sophomores on the court, and we’re still making young mistakes, but we’re getting better. We’ve lost a lot of close games, and once we learn how to win these close games against high-level competition, we’re going to be just fine, which I think is coming. Remember, I always say we don’t play for January or December, we play for February and March, so that’s what we’re building towards.”
The Flyers were led by Montreal Stacker on Tuesday with 12 points, with Devrice Johnson coming up with 11 points.
Alex Johnson scored nine points.
The East St. Louis varsity roster consists of seniors J. Ayers, Arlandis Brown, Montreal Stacker, Jonathan Hale and Jordyn Burris. Juniors are Lawson Bynum, Rorey Coleman, Deatrick Palmer and Alex Johnson. Sophomores are Devrice Johnson Jr., and Tyrik Barnes and freshman Seth Kirkpatrick.
The Flyers competed well Tuesday night against the Tigers and played hard throughout the game, something Chambers was very pleased with.
“We competed,” Chambers said. “We just made some mistakes, like I said, at the end, that kind of gave them the edge there.”
It’s still a young team, and once East Side gets the bugs worked out – watch out.
“We’re definitely going to turn it around,” a very confident Chambers said. “I mean, if you look at our schedule, we’ve played a really tough schedule, we’ve lost some really close games against this tough schedule. Like I said, once we learn how to win, and learn why we’re losing those close games, which we’re in the process of doing, it’s just growing pains. But once we figure it out, watch out.”
East Side is now 6-10 on the season, and hosts O’Fallon on Friday night, then Belleville East next Tuesday night.
