Cawhan Smith’s late 3-pointer lifts Collinsville past O’Fallon in SWC opener
Collinsville senior Cawhan Smith wasn’t surprised at all when he had an open jumper with two seconds left Friday in the Kahoks home opener against O’Fallon.
The smallest player on the Kahoks roster at 5-9, Smith made the biggest play of the night.
Taking a pass from senior all-state guard Ray’Sean Taylor, Smith connected on a 3-point jumper to give Collinsville a 53-50 win in the Southwestern Conference debut for both teams.
“Ray (Taylor) has the ball in that situation and he’s either going to take it to the basket or he’s going to penetrate and get the ball to the open player if the defense collapses on him. I was open and the shot went in,” Smith said. “This is a good win. But we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
O’Fallon (4-1) had a chance with 1.9 seconds left, but junior Shaun Riley’s desperation 3-point shot fell well short of the mark.
“Everybody knows what we’re going to do. We want the basketball in Ray’Sean’s hands,” Collinsville coach Darin Lee said of the last second shot.
“It’s early. We have some things to work and they (O’Fallon) have some things to work on. Tonight our foul trouble hurt and on defense I thought we let them penetrate too much. Give O’Fallon credit though. They took it inside against us. But a win is a win.”
Ranked fifth in the Class 4A state poll, state poll Collinsville moves to 6-0. The Kahoks opened the season by winning the Pyramid Plus Tournament in Carterville.
With Taylor, a 6-1 guard who will attend SIU-Edwardsville next year, scoring seven of his game-high 21 points, Collinsville bolted out to a 15-10 lead after one quarter.
But with the 6-7 Riley and 6-3 Dawson Algee taking the ball inside, O’Fallon used a 9-0 scoring run to take its biggest lead of the night, 19-15. Collinsville responded with a 9-point run of its own and led 24-21 at halftime.
While Collinsville was piling up the fouls, O’Fallon. which opened the season winning the Alton Tip-Off Classic before defeating Granite City, was wasting opportunities. O’Fallon was just 12-of-27 from the foul line for the game.
“The free throw shooting really hurt,” O’Fallon coach Brian Muniz said “You can’t shoot 40 percent from the free throw line against a good team like Collinsville.”
Collinsville led by 6 after 3 quarters, but Panthers rally
The Kahoks lead expanded to 41-35 after three quarters before O’Fallon rallied.
With the Kahoks managing only three free throws in the first four minutes of the final quarter, O’Fallon cut the gap. Riley, who posted six of his 18 points in the period, scored on a pair of medium range jumpers, and when Algee made two free throws with 4:07 left, the score was tied at 44.
Taylor missed the front end of a 1-and-1 twice midway in the fourth quarter and O’Fallon committed a pair of costly turnovers late with a chance to take the lead.
But after O’Fallon tied the game for the last time, Taylor made sure it was the Kahoks who would have the final shot.
“Their guards (Taylor and Smith) are so quick,’’ Muniz said. “No, I’m not surprised they didn’t call time out to set up the last play with 17 seconds left.
“We did some good things tonight. They (Collinsville) were not going to let our guards shot the basketball. I thought both Shaun (Riley) and Dawson Algee did a great job of being aggressive and taking the ball to the basket..’’
Riley led O’Fallon with 18 points while Algee added 13. Smith chipped in with 16 for Collinsville.
Next up for Collinsville, O’Fallon
Both teams resume action at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, as Collinsville hosts East St. Louis and O’Fallon visits Alton.
This story was originally published December 7, 2019 at 1:32 AM.
