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ALTON - The Alton Redbirds came into East St. Louis on Friday night with determination and being in good form, despite some player suspensions.
However, leaving the “City of Champions” with a victory is always a tall task.
The East St. Louis Flyers defeated the Redbirds 79-70 in an important early-season Southwestern Conference matchup.
This is officially Alton’s second loss of the season and falls to 3-2-1, but unofficially it’s their first true loss on the hardwood. Fifteen days ago a fight broke out between the Redbirds and the Riverview Gardens Rams, and the game was initially forfeited by both schools but has now been ruled a tie. Both teams forfeited their next games each.
Alton head coach Eric Smith liked what he saw offensively, but on the defensive side stressed that his team left an abundant amount of chances on the floor to give themselves a better opportunity to win.
“It was too many opportunities to make a basketball winning play went by the wayside for us,” Alton head coach Eric Smith said. “We gave up three or four rebounds off of missed layups. It was things that we weren’t focused or concentrated on. We were worried about how many points we would score. We were worried about everything else as opposed to just doing our jobs.”
Donovan Clay led the Redbirds with 18 points, and Moory Woods finished with a career-high 17 points. Adam Jones and Malik Smith added 14 points.
Elijah Rice scored a game-high 20 points, and Cornelius Leflore added 15 with four triples for the Flyers. Terrance Hargrove Jr and Richard Robinson both recorded double-doubles. Hargrove finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds while Robinson tallied 11 and 10.
“The way we’re going to win games is balance,” East St. Louis head coach Mark Chambers said. “I have some guys who’ve averaged 13, 14 points a game on the varsity level. They haven’t been doing that thus far but tonight has been an example of how we’re going to win games going forward.”
Alton got out to an early 15-7 lead when Clay nailed a three-pointer. Hargrove Jr proceded to score eight straight points before Woods scored his eighth point of the quarter that gave the Redbirds an 18-15 lead.
Alton kept holding East St. Louis off and managed to rebuild a six-point advantage at 30-24 thanks to another triple by Clay. The Flyers then went on a 10-2 run to close out the half thanks in large part to Leflore scoring 10 second-quarter points, including a three-pointer at the buzzer to give East St. Louis a 36-32 lead.
The Redbirds didn’t let the late barrage by the Flyers get to them in the slightest as they came out strong in the second half. They went on an 8-0 run with baskets by Smith, Clay, and Jones.
The Flyers hard work late in the second quarter was wiped away, and they had to start all over.
Fine by them.
Reserve guard Jabril Olivaria knocked down a triple, his only points of the night to bring the Flyers back to within one point. After a number of possessions where both teams traded baskets, LaShawn Johnson gave East St. Louis the lead for good at 45-44 on a layup, which was his only basket of the night as well.
“Sometimes being at home works against us,” Chambers said. “We were a little too anxious and too aggressive at times, but once we settled into our game, everything worked out.”
The Flyers led 52-46 going into the fourth quarter.
Baskets by Clay and Woods brought the score to 54-51, but East St. Louis went on a 10-0 run that was ignited by a Rice three-pointer and then another one by Leflore to put them up 64-51, which was the biggest lead of the game.
Alton never quit and managed to cut the deficit down to five at 75-70 but would get no further.
“I thought we played hard. We had some energy,” Smith said. “We had some guys I thought completed like crazy, but we just weren’t engaged enough with what our jobs were. All of us need to do a better job defensively.”
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