Flyers hand Maroons league loss
The turnovers came in flurries for the Bellevile West Maroons and the East St. Louis Flyers were only too glad to take advantage in a 77-70 Southwestern Conference victory on Friday.
The Maroons were guilty of 31 turnovers in the loss, many of which led directly to points for the Flyers, who reeled off their fourth consecutive victory.
“From the turnover aspect, we were able to do what we were supposed to do,” said first-year East St. Louis coach Philip Gilbert, whose team improved to 5-5 and 2-2 in SWC play. “We try to inflect pressure in the frontcourt and getting back in the back court. We just want to make it tough for them to set up.
“Their two big men are pretty scary and we’re playing with basically five guards out there. All we can try to do is try and be scrappy and keep them from getting the ball.”
Down by 12 in the final minutes, the Maroons did make one final surge behind that strong inside tandem of 6-foot-6 junior Tyler Dancy and 6-6 freshman E.J. Liddell.
Those two combined for 17 points in the fourth quarter, including a conventional three-point play from Liddell which drew West within 63-60 with under a minute and a half remaining.
But the Flyers’ Kenny Roberson answered with a 3-pointer at the other end and after a travelling call ended the Maroons’ ensuring possession — in what would be West’s final turnover of the game — East Side was able to seal the win at the free-throw line by draining nine of 10 attempts over the final 1:07 to close the game out.
“We were able to get some our best free-throw shooters to the line,” said Gilbert, who cashed in at the free-throw line on its final five possessions. “This is a good victory for us. We just need to try and build on it as we get ready for the Collinsville tournament.”
Liddell led all scorers with 29 points, including 18 in the second half, to go with 10 rebounds. Dancy, meanwhile, had 22 points to go with a game-high 11 rebounds. Those two would shoot a combined 20 of 27 from the field.
But their efforts could not overcome the Maroons’ difficulty in taking care of the basketball against East Side’s full-court pressure.
“That’s been an Achilles’ heel for us all along,” said West coach Joe Muniz of his team’s trouble getting the basketball to Liddell and Dancy. “We had a problem getting the ball to them Tuesday night against East.
“Tonight, when we were able to get the ball into the frontcourt, and I credit our kids because we worked very hard on it in the last two days in practice, we were able to score. But you can’t afford to have that many turnovers against a team like East St. Louis, they’re just too explosive.”
Despite nine first quarter turnovers, West jumped out to a 17-11 lead after the opening quarter, as Dancy draining all four of his shot attempts and Liddell adding five more points.
Tightening up its interior defense, East St. Louis would whittle down that lead during the second quarter, eventually tying it at 25 on a Reyondous Estes’ basket following one of West’s 12 second-quarter turnovers.
The Flyers would go into halftime with a 30-29 lead, Roberson supplying their final points of the half with his first 3-pointer of the game.
“We wanted to double the post, we wanted to double down on them, we call it fire in the basement, and force them to make a decision,” said Gilbert, of his team’s second quarter defense. “And I thought we did a better job of that in the second quarter. We just need to be more consistent with that and we should be all right.”
East St. Louis would increase its lead to 51-45 after three quarters. Marquise Chairs tallying seven points and Patrick Baxter six in the period.
Chairs and Antonio Johnson led a balanced East St. Louis offense with 10 points apiece. Patrick Baxter had 11 and Karon Randolph finished with 10.
With Liddell and Dancy combining for 51 points, no other West player finished with four. The Maroons did struggle at the free-throw line, making just 18 of 28 attempts.
This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 11:33 PM with the headline "Flyers hand Maroons league loss."