SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- - Conor McCaffrey had 26 points and 12 assists, leading Our Savior's ot a 69-55 victory over Trinity Springfield on Sunday night.
McCaffrey leads the State with 14 double-doubles this season. Jace Easley added in 23 points, as Jeremiah Perkins and Lucas Schmidt both scored 10 for Our Savior's (10-5, 6-3).
"We were better tonight (after two consectutive losses)," Our Savior's head coach Phillip Heppe said. "The biggest challenge in this game is the mental preparation. I told the guys I would coach them hard this week."
Torry Kistner scored 24 points and Kaden Meredith add 22 for the Trinity Tigers (4-6, 1-5).
Our Savior's charged to a 13-5 advantage and never relinquished the lead. The Eagles led 32-18 at the break. Easley scored just 9 points in the first half.
"Obviously, we got off to a good start tonight," Heppe said. "Our passing skills were evident tonight. It was fun to watch."
Our Savior's held an 18-8 advantage in assists. McCaffrey had 12 and Easley had 6.
"We had 18 assists, and that is very good," Perkins said. "When we play connected like that, it's very hard to beat us."
A scrum with two seconds left in the half resulted in techical fouls called on Logan Allen of Our Savior's and Torry Kistner of Trinity Springfield.
Our Savior's shot 46% from the field, while Trinity was 34%.
CALLED OUT
Our Savior's head coach called out some of the teams bench manners in the previous games that had been lost. "I've been extremely unhappy with how dead the bench has been in recent games, it just feels flat, like there is no life at all."
ENERGY PLUS
One thing Our Savior's seemed to correct from the past two games was the lack of energy on the court.
"Everyone played their butts off out there tonight," Schmidt said. "From the opening minute, you could just feel the energy out there."
BIG PICTURE
Our Savior's did what it had to do to prevent its third straight loss. One thing that helped was avoiding a slow start, which has plagued the team all season.
HE SAID IT
Trinity on playing Our Savior's: "I thought as a team, their whole defensive dispostion was significantly different (from the two teams' last minute in December). They were really physical. They were physical with our guards. They were physical on ball screens. They were playing with a sense of urgency. When you have Easley and McCaffrey, that's a great combination, and I think it just allows the other guys to play."
UP NEXT
Trinity Tigers: Host Trinity Bloomington on Thursday.
Our Savior's: The Eagles game scheduled for Thursday, was canceled due to an Influenza outbreak with Peoria DePaul. Our Savior's for the moment will not play again, until it hosts Our Savior's Jacksonville on Jan. 29.