Defense, boards send East St. Louis past Leo and into state championship game

It was a weekday, a school day, a work day, and the game started in the morning. So while it certainly wasn’t an overflow crowd at State Farm Center, the air was still loud with chants of “Eaaaast-Siiiide” in the final minutes of the fourth quarter Friday.

It got even louder when the final horn sounded on East St. Louis’ 59-40 victory over Chicago Leo in the Class 3A state semifinals, clinching a berth in Saturday’s Class 3A state title game against Deerfield at 4 p.m.

No doubt the stands will have more orange-and-blue dressed people with “Flyers” on their chests for Saturday’s tilt.

The Flyers (32-4) overcame a mixed bag of a first half to play excellent two-way basketball, outscoring Leo 45-20 in the second half. With talented forward Jamison White having something of an off day offensively, the Flyers got great contributions from senior Alex Johnson (a game-high 19 points) and junior guard Philip Jones (17) to end Leo’s season at 27-7.

“We made some adjustments at the half, and defensively is where we turned the game around,” East St. Louis coach Mark Chambers said.

The big adjustment was going to a half-court trap defense, and it worked like a charm for the Flyers. Up to that point, the Lions were getting a lot of good looks at the basket and hurting the Flyers from 3-point territory.

But the Lions were flustered by the instant pressure as soon as they crossed half court. The Flyers started forcing lots of contested shots and creating more turnovers. When the Lions started missing, the 6-foot-8 White grabbed nearly every rebound, along with Johnson. White finished with 15 rebounds and Johnson had 10.

“If the offense doesn’t come, I do try to dial it up a bit more,” said White, who will attend Penn State this fall. “I just try to do what I can to help the team, in the moment.”

The Flyers held the Lions to just nine points in the fourth quarter after taking a 37-31 lead after three quarters.

“It wasn’t the outcome we wanted,” Lions coach Jimalle Ridley said. “They got some stops on us, and took advantage, especially in the fourth quarter.”

The Lions put most of their defensive focus on denying White the ball down low, and did a good job of it for the most part. White shot 4-for-12 from the floor and 4-for-10 from the free throw line.

But that left more opportunities for Jones and Johnson to get open looks, and they didn’t disappoint. Jones was 6-for-9 from the floor, while Johnson was 7-for-15 and 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

One thing the Flyers will need to improve to beat the big, mobile Deerfield Warriors: free throws. East St. Louis was just 15-for-26 from the foul line.

“Obviously, that has to be better. But I think, as long as we play good, solid defense, we’ll be fine,” Chambers said. “Their big guy (6-3 senior Evan Nagler, 13.4 points per-game) is a problem. But if we just stay true to what we do, we’ll be OK.”

The Flyers, and judging by a sampling in the parking lot afterward, most of their fans, will stay overnight in Champaign.

No doubt a nice meal would be had, but White said his teammates will spend most of the night “watching film” of Deerfield.

“The job’s not done yet,” White said.