New Athens celebrated its first Cahokia Conference basketball championship in 34 years Friday night with a 46-31 victory over Marissa.
"We're real excited right now, it's kind of a big deal for us around here," said New Athens coach Marc Derwort, whose team improved to 19-6 overall and 11-0 in Cahokia Conference-Kaskaskia Division play with one conference game remaining. "Unfortunately they like to hang all the conference championship plaques in our gym, so it's always staring me in the face because 1979's been etched in my mind for a while now."
Senior Blake Ragland had 20 points for New Athens while junior Tyler Meyer added 10 points and 14 rebounds. Brandon Conway led Marissa (4-20, 1-10) with 12 points.
"We did a great job of finishing it out," said Derwort, a standout player at Gibault High and McKendree University. "We clinched on senior night and we had a great crowd that was really loud with a packed gym. It was a great atmosphere for the game.
"The seniors led us all year and they did a good job tonight."
Central 52, Greenville 34
Luke Jackson tossed in 15 points and Kyler Scheer added 10 as Central (19-8) cruised to a nonconference win over Greenville.
Greenville got 11 points from Jacob Hall.
Alton 55, Collinsville 49
Alton (12-13, 5-5) held off a late Collinsville rally as the Redbirds got 12 points from Aaron Womack in a Southwestern Conference win.
Chris Mathes had 13 points for Collinsville (10-15, 2-8) and Falando Wilkinson added 13.
Edwardsville 71, Granite City 40
Edwardsville (21-2, 8-2) blanked Granite City 22-0 in the first quarter and rolled to an easy Southwestern Conference victory as Western Illinois University recruit Garret Covington led the way with 21 points.
Drew Curtis added 13 points for the Tigers and Shawn Roundtree had 11.
Devin Narvaez topped Granite City (11-11, 2-8) with 10 points.
Dupo 61, Valmeyer 57
Dupo's Matt McDonald fired in 30 points as the Tigers (8-17, 5-6) held on to beat Valmeyer in a Cahokia Conference-Kaskaskia Division game.
Eric Smith and Ryan Unterseh had 14 points each for Valmeyer (2-20, 0-9).
