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BELLEVILLE - Donovan Clay and Malik Smith showed how if the two of them can get hot then the Alton Redbirds are one of the toughest teams to deal with in the St. Louis area.
The senior dynamic duo combined for 49 points as they helped the Alton Redbirds earn a Southwestern Conference victory on the road against the Belleville East Lancers 73-61 on Tuesday night.
“We got a lot of paint touches, and early we didn’t shoot a whole lot of contested shots,” Alton head coach Eric Smith said. “This isn’t necessarily where we want to be, but this was better offensively than we’ve been in a couple of weeks.”
Alton improves to 5-4-1 and moves into a tie with East St. Louis for second place in the SWC with a 3-1 record.
Clay, an athletic 6-foot-7 forward led all-scorers by recording 25 points for the second game in a row, previously netting the same statistic against Jennings this past Saturday. Smith came on strong in the latter stages of the game as he netted 20 of his 24 points in the second half by getting to the rim and knocked down five three-pointers in the game.
“I was trying to get my team involved because I’m a leader and it’s my job to help get everybody else going,” Malik Smith said. “I got myself going in the second half, which they helped me out getting me open by driving to the basket, kicking it and I was able to knock down some threes.”
Belleville East drops to 6-5 (2-3 SWC).
Malik Williams topped the Belleville East scoring sheet with 20 points. Jared Adams and Isaiah May followed with 16 and 13 points respectively. May scored all of his points in the second half.
“I would assume they probably tried to do some different things against Donovan which opened some stuff up for Malik,” Eric Smith said. “If Malik’s going to shoot an uncontested rhythm jumper it’s over.”
The Redbirds momentarily trailed 3-2, but they went on a 10-3 run to end the first quarter. Ky’Lun Rivers made a layup and then a triple to put Alton up 17-5 in the first minute of the second quarter. Clay scored eight points in the second frame, including a two-handed alley-oop dunk he received from Smith on a fast break to put his team up 25-12.
A 25-9 run gave the Redbirds a 16-point lead and then led 32-19 at halftime.
Smith opened the second half with a three-pointer, and then another trey by Rivers gave Alton their biggest lead of the game at 43-24.
That’s when the Lancers heated up.
They went on a 21-10 run and cut the deficit to eight points at 56-48 with just over six minutes to play.
“I think [Belleville East] was a little more aggressive [in the second half]. They just decided they were going to put their head down and go to the basket,” Eric Smith said. “We didn’t put up much of a fight for a little bit and then when we decided to put up a fight they’re already feeling pretty good and have some rhythm.”
Alton answered with six consecutive points, including a three by Smith to get the game back into double-digits. He scored 14 vital points down the stretch in the fourth quarter to help ice the game. The Redbirds pulled away with a 15-6 run.
“I felt like I played way better in this game defensively and offensively,” Malik Smith said. “Against Jennings, our IQ just wasn’t there. We had a whole lot of unnecessary turnovers and bad three-point shots. Today everybody played together, and we had a lot of assists.”
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