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Volunteers hold off Storm at District tourney
















 
By Justin Walker
updated: 3/8/2017 11:31 PM

INA -- Regular season records certainly don't mean a thing when it comes to NJCAA postseason basketball, especially in terms of action on the court.

The John A. Logan College men jumped out to an early lead and hung tough to oust a fiesty Southwestern Illinois squad, 68-60, Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of what is now called the Division I - District 16 championship at Rend Lake College.

Whether it's called Region 24 or District 16 or whatever, the tournament annually showcases some of the best and most exciting junior college basketball a fan -- or a scout from a four-year university -- can possibly watch.

A long list of coaches were there to see Logan's Jalen Perry and he didn't disappoint with 13 of his 22 points in the first half. Perry sank three 3-pointers and had a layup to help the Vols push out to a very important 21-7 lead in the first eight minutes.

"This was a team we played six days ago and beat by 25," said Logan coach Kyle Smithpeters. "There's probably not a worse situation to be in than to have to come back six days later and play that team again. It's hard."

Emile Lewis also hit three 3-pointers in the first half, which ended with Logan holding a 37-23 lead.
Having a decent margin was important, because the Storm were about to go on a run.

"That gave us a little bit of an advantage and an edge," Smithpeters said. "Our point guards played with fouls and did a good job of managing where we could. We got a little wild there at times but that's part of it at tournament time."

SWIC (13-17) chipped away and got within four points in the second half but the Vols kept the lead, thanks to strong inside play from Jerome Davis, who ended up with a dozen, and eight points from Will Robinson, including a pair of treys.

Davis battled against the SWIC towers of Luke Davis (6-8) and Jaalam Hill (6-6) and lived to tell about it. Hill had a game-high 23 points and battering ram Davis had 10. Teddy Fifer hit three triples and had 13.

"Jerome did a great job of taking the physicality and really getting his tail kicked inside and still managed to put up almost a double-double," Smithpeters said. "So I was very proud of that."

Lewis finished with nine and both Robinson and Rashaun Richardson had eight. Billinger hit a 3-pointer to start the game and hit four key free throws in the final 20 seconds to seal it after SWIC pulled within 64-60.

"They didn't want to go away," Smithpeters said. "They wanted to win as bad as we did. But our guys showed enough resilience and grit to finish it up down the stretch."

Logan is now 24-6 on the season and fittingly plays Wabash Valley in the semifinals on Thursday at 1 p.m. Wabash is now 22-8 after beating Olney, 82-76, behind DeAngelo Isby's 25 points.

Fitting because Logan and Wabash battled without a victor this past Saturday in Mount Carmel -- the game was called with four minutes left when a power outage left part of the court in the dark.

In the other quarterfinal games, top seed Vincennes improved to 29-2 when it squeaked past Lake Land, 82-81, and now meets Shawnee (18-7) in the first semifinal at 11 a.m. The Saints took down Kaskaskia, 67-57.

The championship game is slated for Friday night at 8 p.m.

Thursday's schedule at Rend Lake will also include the Division II - District 16 quarterfinals, with those semifinals on Friday after the Division I - District P women's semifinals that include Logan going against Wabash Valley at 11 a.m.

The District P women's and Division II men's championship games will be held Saturday.

 
 
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