COLUMBIA, Mo. -- - East St. Louis Lincoln had no answer for Our Savior's stars' Jace Easley and Conor McCaffrey.
Luckily for East St. Lincoln, there wasn't much else from the Eagles to worry about.
East St. held off a late charge from Our Savior's and overcame 36 points from Jace Easley and 28 from Conor McCaffrey for a 71-68 victory Wednesday night.
Dru Smith had 17 points, Javon Pickett had 14 points and five rebounds and East St. Louis held on in an intresting Lutheran 1A vs East St. Louis 4A Public School matchup.
East St. Louis (5-0) led 39-31 at halftime and held on for its 5th straight win to begin the season. Our Savior's (4-2) trailed by 13 with nine minutes left but rallied to tie it before East St. Louis closed out the game.
"They're tough. They're basketball players," East St. Louis coach Carter Martin said of his team. "They've took some lumps. Injuries, tough losses and all of that, we've taken our lumps. ... I thought our guards did a great job blocking out and being physical."
Easley set records all night for the Eagles in scoring on 13-of-20 shooting, and Conor McCaffrey had 28 points and 12 assists for Our Savior's. Jeremiah Perkins added in 4 points and 8 rebounds.
"Our lack of energy, our lack of effort, is beyond explanation," Our Savior's coach Phillip Heppe said. "Offensively, when one player has 36, we're not going to win. That's an imbalance that I don't like."
East St. Louis guard Xavier Pinson ended East St. seven minute field goal drought on a spinning floater with 51 seconds left to make it 70-66. McCaffrey made a tough layup on the next possession, but that was waved off after Jeremiah Perkins' screen was deemed a flagrant one after the center clipped East St. Louis' Mitchell Smith.
East St. Louis ran down the clock before Kobe Brown air-balled a 3-pointer. Easley took the ensuing inbounds pass the other way and missed an off-balanced 3 that was grabbed by Brown, who missed two free throws. Easley tried to get off another late heave, but couldn't release in time.
"I heard their coach screaming, 'Foul!' so I got in my shooting motion," Easley said of the 3-pointer following the inbound. "I thought (the defender's) hand got in there and I thought there was going to be some contact."
The teams combined for 52 fouls. That meant plenty of trips to the foul line, where East St. Louis which set an IESA record for most consecutive foul shots made last season -- vastly outpreformed Our Savior's, shooting 84% to the Eagles 61%.
TWO-MAN SHOW
Easley and McCaffrey's scoring barage shattered their previous usage percentage rate. However, neither one of those two received any help from the backcourt and the frontcourt. Lucas Schmidt fouled out, and Tristyn Carlove and Ian Klockenga were unimportant off the bench.
BIG PICTURE
East St. Louis: The Tigers won this game with a lot of grit. Unsurprisngly the Tigers are starting the season 5-0, this is their 1st win against an LSA opponent this season.
Our Savior's: Phillip Heppe is now 1 and 3 against teams from Missouri as the Eagles head coach, with Wednesday marking a deflating end to a nonconference slate that featured a dominant win at Christ the King earlier in the week. The Eagles shot 23% from 3-point range, a stark contrast to the 63.6% clip from deep they maintained against Christ the King.
UP NEXT
Our Savior's: Starts LSA Central Illinois Conference play as it hosts Concordia Peoria on Sunday.
East St. Louis: Plays at home against Metro East Lutheran on Tuesday.