Reporting Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
Team Soy Capital – 45th Annual Decatur Turkey Tourney
Thornton 61 – East St. Louis 58 (overtime)
Two storied hoop programs facing off in the tourney opener, in addition both programs also have a rich tradition in football; both teams had players just coming off the grid-iron, so this match-up was scripted to be a daunting task to officiate. East-side six foot eleven sophomore Jeremiah Tilman, the no. 1 prospect in the 2017 class continues to show progression on the offensive end and clearly one day may be a dominating force at both ends. But this night belonged to the Thornton Wildcats who filled junior oriented line-up, took its first lead of the game at the end of the 3rd quarter on a three pointer by six foot four junior Robert McCaulley who tallied 11 points. The Wildcats 6-6 junior Brian Davis (15 pts.) came into the game as unknown prospect, but things are sure to pick-up for him, he’s a smooth wing who’s capable of operating on the perimeter and an awful good athlete. Davis looks like a mid-major recruit. East St. Louis poor outside shooting hindered their 2nd half hopes of pulling this one off. (They had their chances.) The Flyer’s junior guard Antonio Johnson, at six foot four will be a player to watch this season finished with 10 points. “A big-time athlete who made good decisions during the 2nd half of the game, he did a nice job handling the point-guard spot.”
Decatur MacArthur 71 – Springfield Southeast 65
Second game of the night featured a ton of quality underclassmen in both programs, this was worthy of a track-down to Decatur. Southeast got-off to a sluggish start, but rallied behind the play of junior point guard D’Angelo Hughes and went into the locker-room at half up 31-29, MacArthur’s six foot three guard Keymonte Johnson seemed to have a hard time getting on-track, he finished with 8 points, but he’s a 2-way player who can defend & score in addition he blocks a lot of shots. This night he seemed to defer to team-mate Kamari Jones a 6-1 senior who scored a career best 29 points, several buckets coming on acrobatic finishes at the rim. Southeast sophomore guard Mark Johnson displayed inside/outside scoring ability winding up with 17 pts. (He’s going to be good.) S.E.’s Hughes, a vastly under-rated guard who is considered by many of us to be a top 5 in the state at his position collected 20 pts. He has excellent speed & quickness while possessing a smooth accurate jumper. Both of these teams will be fun to watch as they grow through an early stretch of play.
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