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 The victory moves the Illini to 5-1
with two games left in the current 5-game homestand. The Illini
scored early and often and took a lot of the drama out of this one
early in the game.
One point of emphasis the last couple of weeks has been to cut down
on turnovers. The Illini committed 0 turnovers in the first half in
this one and that is not a misprint. They did play a lot of players
in the second half and did finish the contest with 8 miscues but
correcting and cleaning up that area is a point well taken.
Leading the way for the Illini was 7-foot freshman Kofi Cockburn who
had his fifth double-double of the season with 20 points and 13
rebounds. Ayo Dosunmu, who wanted to show Hamton’s top gun Jermaine
Marrow who came into the game averaging nearly 30 points a contest,
that he is a top gun too, did just that with 20 points of his own.
Andres Feliz and Alan Griffin tallied 19 a piece to go along with 5
assists and 6 rebounds respectively. Giorgi Bezhanishvili, who had a
good night of his own, finished with 14 points and 5 rebounds.
What we really enjoyed was seeing the continued development of
Lincoln’s own Jermaine Hamlin. Jermaine got to play just a shade
under 10 minutes, made both of his shots from the field, including a
monster dunk, and finished a nice little post move that left the
Pirates scratching their heads. We really loved his hustle plays
like diving on the floor to keep 50-50 balls alive. Jermaine’s high
school coach, the great Neil Alexander, was in the house Saturday
night to see his former player make him proud.
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Speaking of Coaches
How about the word that came down Saturday afternoon, that Coach
Alexander’s grandson, Austin Kirby, who now coaches at Blackburn
University, took his cagers into Springfield, Missouri and
accomplished what few teams ever do, get a win at Drury. Nice
going, Coach Kirby!
Another former Railer was in the spotlight this weekend as LCU
Coach Donnie Aielts got his team back on the winning track with
a big win over Moody up in Chicago.
HOIC Shoutout…
…to Fisher’s Zach Griffith who scored his first collegiate field
goal last night. When my son used to play for Leroy he had to
guard Griffith a few times.
Next Up
Illinois will host Lindenwood on Tuesday night at 7pm. [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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