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PEORIA - East St. Louis used a balanced attack, powered by Terrence Hargrove Jr., to up end its IHSA Class 3A State Boys Basketball semifinal opponent Peoria Manual 57-48 Friday afternoon.
East St. Louis improves to 29-6, while Peoria Manual is now 19-12 after the loss.
The Flyer's Hargrove had 19 points and 12 rebounds, while Jashawn Anderson had 14 points and Richard Robinson and Traveion Jones had 8 points. Elijah Rice and Cornelius Leflore had 3 points and Carlton King contributed 2 points for the Flyers.
Rolando Brown exploded for 24 points and had 10 rebounds to lead Peoria Manual.
East St. Louis led 18-10 at the end of one and 26-22 at the half, then was ahead 44-40 at the end of three. The Flyers outscored Peoria Manual 13-8 in the fourth quarter.
East St. Louis Head Coach Mark Chambers said the game was a tough battle, as expected. He said the half-court press that the Flyers threw Peoria Manual off balance a little bit.
"Our man-to-man defense was really tough on their top guys," Chambers said. "We went to T.J. Hargrove a lot more in the fourth quarter. He's a load down there, so it worked out for us."
Peoria Manual Coach Willie Coleman said: "I'm really proud of these guys, no one expected us to get downstate. They came out and fought a very good East St. Louis team, but we went 15 of 33 from the free-throw line. If we hit 9 or 10 of them, we win this ballgame. We will put this behind and look forward to the third-place game tomorrow."
Chicago (Bogan) and East St. Louis meet at 1 p.m. Saturday in Peoria to decide the Class 3A state championship.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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