Above: Southeastern Community College’s Isaiah Griffin (12) maneuvers around No. 19 Triton’s Jamal Winston Saturday afternoon at Loren Walker Arena. Griffin scored a game-high 25 points while Winston countered with 19 tallies, including five 3-pointers. Photo/Joe Geren
By Joe Geren Beacon Sports
Southeastern Community College’s men’s basketball team never trailed at Loren Walker Arena Saturday afternoon, but 19th-ranked Triton wouldn't let the Blackhawks build a comfortable margin, either.
Unranked SCC survived a barrage of 3-point attempts and defeated the Trojans, 80-73.
The early-going seemed easy enough. SCC built first-half leads of 15-4 and 29-17, but Triton narrowed the gap to a 35-28 halftime lead for SCC.
With 4:16 left in the game, the Tritons’ B.J. Marable converted a 3-point play and SCC led just 70-67. The Blackhawks battled back. With 1:18 left to play, SCC’s Jhonny Tovar stole the ball and passed to Davion Bailey, whose layup made it more comfortable for the Blackhawks at 77-67.
The Trojans stayed in the game with 3-point shooting, making 12 to SCC’s six.
“They average between 25 and 30 3-point attempts a game,” SCC head coach Lorenzo Watkins said. “In the first half of the game, we talked about we’ve got to push them off the 3-point line. Those guys shoot it well. I mean, at Sauk Valley the other night they made 19 of 30. So we know they can shoot it. It’s just we were more worried about having to make them guard on the other end of the floor to take their legs away. We did that in spurts in the first half and the first eight, 10 minutes of the second half all of a sudden they got the game set up the way they wanted it to be sped up.”
For the season, Triton is 104-for-290 from the 3-point range for just under 35 percent.
In the second half, “all of a sudden we got sped up, and then it was 100 miles an hour,” Watkins said. “So it became a jump game and we fell right into it. I thought coach (John) Clancy did a nice job of turning up the dial and making us throw the ball everywhere and shoot quick shots that we normally don’t shoot.”
SCC improved to 10-3; Triton is 9-4.
SCC’s Isaiah Griffin led all scorers with 25 points, including 10 of SCC’s first 12 points. Deng Deang came off the SCC bench for 14 points. Bailey scored 13 and Jaylon Searles added 10. Brandon Muntu led Triton with 23 points and Jamal Winston had 19. Muntu hit four 3-pointers and Winston scored five of them.
The Blackhawks play John Wood (8-5) at Quincy, Ill., Wednesday night, then compete in the Highland tournament at Freeport, Ill., Friday and Saturday.
Southeastern Community College’s Davion Bailey (5) inbounds the basketball against the Triton press in the second half in Loren Walker Arena Saturday afternoon. Bailey scored 13 points. Photo/Joe Geren