Logan gets impressive win in season opener

CARTERVILLE -- Even with highly-touted freshman Jayden Scrubb on the bench most of the night, the John A. Logan College men's basketball team was even more impressive and entertaining than expected in a season-opening 106-81 win over Motlow State on Thursday night at Brewer Gymnasium.
Scrubb, the 6-foot-6 standout from Louisville, still managed to pour in 12 points despite collecting five fouls in a matter of a few minutes -- his fifth came with 9:33 remaining.
"What was great about that was seeing the rest of the guys step up," said Logan coach Kyle Smithpeters. "That's going to happen throughout the season and we have to have guys step up and be able to make plays and they did that tonight."
The Vols' returning sophomores put their stamp on the victory, which came against a middle Tennessee school fresh off a repeat trip to the NJCAA Division I national tournament.
Jonah Jackson, who came off the bench, went on one his patented 3-point barrages in the second half and finished with a team-high 22 points while going 6 of 8 from beyond the arc. He was part of an impressive Logan shooting performance that netted 13 of 21 long-range attempts.
Vonnie Patterson filled up the stat sheet with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Quamain Nelson, another returning sophomore, and Scrubb both added 12 points, and returning All-American point guard David Sloan may have had just six points, but dished out eight assists while making eye-popping moves.
Jordan Cousin, another highly-touted freshman from Bowling Green, Kentucy, had 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Chris Harris added nine points, six assists and four rebounds and went 6 of 6 from the foul line. Harris, a sophomore, transferred to Logan after being Missouri S&T's leading scorer last season.
Returning sophomore Will Keller had seven points and five rebounds and Antwan Campbell, also a familiar name, had six points and seven rebounds.
Marion's Justin Saddoris played a major role with ballhandling and defense. The freshman took just one shot but went 1 of 2 from the foul line. His first collegiate point came with 12:35 left in the first half and gave Logan a 24-9 lead.
Logan jumped out to a 16-1 lead on the Bucks and took a 58-35 advantage into the halftime break. The Vols were marked for 29 assists and 15 turnovers. Just over half of those assists came in the opening stanza.
"That says you're playing very selfless basketball and getting a lot of people involved," Smithpeters said. "I thought we had a good flow with our offense."
Smithpeters liked his team's defense, as well.
"We want to get stops and we want to get them in a row," he said. "We did a lot of things very well with our rotation. We challenged shots and had a lot of energy going."
The only negative of the night for the Vols was a 21-of-40 outing at the foul line -- a staggering stat considering the numbers from the 3-point line -- and Nelson was the biggest culprit as he went 0 for 7.
"We've got some things we can definitely work on," Smithpeters said, "but you can't complain too much by coming in and playing that way against that type of opponent your first game out."
Logan plays at home again Tuesday night against Three Rivers.