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EAST ST. LOUIS - Jashawn Anderson hadn’t scored all night.
He didn’t even attempt a shot.
With time winding down in the fourth quarter with the score tied at 64-all against the Collinsville Kahoks, Anderson, a point guard was forced to throw up a desperation shot right on the volleyball line with under three seconds to go.
The result was nothing but net and a foul against the Kahoks with 0.1 seconds to play.
Anderson delivered the East St. Louis Flyers a crucial early-season victory over the previously unbeaten Kahoks 67-64 in Southwestern Conference action at East St. Louis High School on Tuesday night.
“I just got it off. I prayed that I made it,” Jashawn Anderson said. “When Cornelious pump-faked and kicked it back to me, I looked at the scoreboard with three seconds left, and I knew I had to get it up.”
After East St. Louis head coach Mark Chambers called timeout with 17 seconds to go, the original play was to get the ball into the hands of Hargrove Jr, but the Kahoks were all over that. As a result, the Flyers had to improvise.
“We called a timeout, and we were running something for Hargrove, and they put a box on him,” It broke down,” Chambers said. “We just got into another set, and they backed off at [Anderson] who hadn’t even looked at the goal pretty much all night, but he can shoot it, and he showed that he can. He hits that shot all the time in practice so I knew that he could hit it.”
There’s a reason why Collinsville was hell-bent at denying Hargrove the ball.
He was virtually playing the best game of his life.
The 6-foot-8 senior forward and Saint Louis Billiken commit finished with a career-high 37 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks. He shot 12-of-23 from the field, made 12-of-16 foul shots and played all 32 minutes.
“Terrance is playing like a man on a mission,” Chambers said. “He’s playing aggressive, tough, and smart. I couldn’t be more proud of him. He works so hard. He’s the leader of this team, and he showed it tonight.”
Ray’Sean Taylor, who averaged 16 points a game last season as a sophomore, was at it again.
The 6-foot-0 shooting guard poured in 27 points and shot 13-of-16 from the free-throw line.
"He had a big game, no doubt about that," Collinsville coach Darin Lee said. "He usually does, though. He's very difficult to guard and very skilled with the basketball."
Taylor, who headlines a very promising and young Kahoks squad fall to 6-1 and 1-1 in conference play.
East St. Louis got out to a fast start taking a 22-11 lead into the second quarter, but Collinsville would strike back with a vengeance.
They took advantage of the Flyers cold shooting while getting to the charity stripe and outscored them 28-8.
Cornelius Leflore of East St. Louis scored 12 points all coming via the three-point shot. He sank three treys in the third quarter that helped get the Flyers back into the game being down 39-30 at halftime.
"Cornelius is a streaky shooter, and when he's hot, he can turn a game around," Chambers said. "I talked to him at halftime and told him that we believe in him. He got on a little roll, and those three in a row were crucial."
In the fourth quarter, Collinsville point guard Cawhan Smith and power forward Keydrian Jones fouled out, which gave Hargrove more license to crash the boards and control the paint both offensive and defensively.
“We got [Collinsville’s] bigs in foul trouble, and we came together,” Hargrove said. “We kept pounding the ball inside and had to get their big men out of the game as quick as possible. We got them out of the game, and that helped us a lot.”
The Kahoks had a chance to take the lead in the final minute, but with 34 seconds to play, Taylor after getting fouled on an inbounds play missed the front end of a 1-and-1, which allowed the Flyers to have the final possession.
East St. Louis moves to 4-1 (2-0) with the victory.
“This win means a lot to us. We had to come out and fight as a team. Play hard. Play smart,” Hargrove said. “We have adversity against us. We’re all we got. So we just come out every night and play hard. We never gave up.”
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