#4 John A. Logan Brushes Off The Dust In Sweep of Wabash Valley
(Feb 7, 2022) Carterville, IL – After two weeks off, the shooting touch was off, the ball handling was off, the continuity was off, but the Volunteers gutted out an 85-77 win over Region 24 rival Wabash Valley. The triumph give the Volunteers the sweep in the regular season, beating WVC 94-86 in Mt. Carmel way back in December.
Logan led at halftime, 38-35, the Vols fought hard were able to grind their way through a lot to post win number 18 against 2 losses. And certainly one of those obstacles was the solid play from a much improved Warriors team.
The game was very exemplary of most Wabash/Logan games with regard to the toughness and physicality displayed. But neither team was going to back down.
The Volunteers hadn’t hit the hardwood for live game action since their convincing road triumph, 74-61 over Southwestern Illinois on Monday Jan 24.
“We saw some really good plays tonight, but we knew there would be some cobwebs,” said Logan HC Kyle Smithpeters. “The guys fought through a lot of things. Hopefully they learned some valuable lessons. We have to be able to push through,” he added.
Two games were canceled during the stretch creating the void in their schedule. JAL only played four games in January. Now the Vols face a brutal string of games to wind down the regular season, playing 9 games in the next sixteen days starting with Vincennes on Wednesday the 9th.
That gauntlet will either prime a team for the grind of post season play, or wear them out. Of course Coach Kyle Smithpeters is certainly hoping for the former.
The Warriors fall to 15-7, 6-5 in conference games, but had won five in a row, and eight of their last nine. WVC was “fresh” too, having not played since Jan 31. They had a week off, so they had some rust to deal with as well. The loss also dips their Region record to 7-5.
Wabash Valley provided a threat to the nations number 4 team for basically the entire game. The Warriors were relentless in their pursuit of ending their three game losing streak to the hosts. Several times in the second half, Logan was able to push the lead out to nine. Each time however, the Valley was able to real them in to keep the game close.
As the game was drawing to a close, and the Vols clinging to a one or two possession margin, Wabash Valley was forced to foul. Logan was nails from the charity stripe to secure the victory, especially Sean East who was 8-8 in the last minute of play.
When the dust settled, John A. Logan improved to 8-1 in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference standings, and remains in first place. But with eight league games jammed into the next two weeks for JALC, things could change quick.
Logan was led by Tae Williams’ 20 points. Sean East, who struggled from the floor, but went 11 of 11 from the free toss line, completed play with 19. Cobie Barnes chipped in fourteen as the Volunteers improve their region record to 8-1. Overall, Logan was a remarkable 22 of 25 from the 15 foot line.
Head Coach Smithpeters on the game, “I saw our team last year go through this same scenario going into the national tournament, a ten day layoff, a fourteen day layoff, whatever it may be, and I know what mistakes I made for our guys in preparation for that situation, and I didn’t want to have the same situation for our guys this year. To me it’s like restarting the gear here, we’ve got to make sure we hit fifth gear and not get stuck in second or third. And Wabash played really well, and really hard, and it’s a good thing we weren’t stuck in second gear.
Vincennes competes as a Region24/Central District team, but is not a member of the GRAC.
Four Warriors racked up double numbers: DaShaun Nettles had 16 points (14 in first half), Isaac Stanback added 13, Jakobi Heady 12 and Gary Clay eleven. The teams leading scorer, TreVon Smith, was dressed, but did not play. Wabash Valley returns to action Wednesday at Rend Lake.
