Collinsville drops championship to Quincy

By Editor | March 1, 2023 |

By Mark Jurgena

It was truly a valiant effort by the Kahoks.

They just ran out of time.

Quincy gained their first lead of the game with 3:56 to go in the final quarter then took their final lead with 2:02 on the clock and held on to beat Collinsville 53-47 in the championship game of the Class 4A Quincy regional on Feb. 24.

The win moved the #9 ranked Blue Devils (26-4) into the Alton Sectional semifinals against O’Fallon. That game was played Tuesday night however results were unavailable at press time. The Kahoks finished their season at 21-12.

“I thought we played really well playing without Nick (Horras – who had four 1st half fouls) all that time. I thought we did a great job. We probably ran out of a little gas there. Two games, long travel in three days. I think the three guys who played the heavy minutes were getting tired especially (Jamoire Wysinger), (Jake) Wilkinson, and (Zach) Chambers.

“I think fatigue played a little factor. We just couldn’t sub, we had nowhere else to go.”

That fatigue was made worse after Horras picked up this third foul late in the opening quarter then his fourth with 6:37 to go in the second stanza.

Collinsville was up 20-14 when he left the contest after his fourth foul and still led 40-37 when he came back into the game to begin the fourth quarter.

“Our whole scheme centers around him it was just really hard to take him out,” said Lee. “It really changes everything we wanted to do preparation-wise and what we wanted to do offensively and defensively. It was just hard to take him out.”

To add to the frustration 6-foot-6 swingman Adam Rimar picked up his third foul moments after Horras left the game, however, CHS actually went on a 10-2 run to get the Kahok lead to 30-20.

Quincy went on a 5-0 run late in the half to cut the lead to five.

While the foul situation was troublesome it was turnovers that cost them in the second half. The Kahoks turned it over 11 times in the final 16 minutes.

“We just had too many turnovers,” said Lee. “We just tried to force things that weren’t there. The turnovers in the third quarter (CHS had six of them) hurt because when we had a turnover we could’ve gotten a few more threes up. Maybe some shots from Zach or a few more from Jamorie. He (Wysinger) shot nine and made five maybe we could’ve gotten a few more up.”

CHS had ten points in the third all but one of which came off a three from Wysinger or Wilkinson. Chambers hit a free throw as well and Collinsville still had a 40-37 advantage heading into the final stanza.

Collinsville had a five-point lead after Rimar hit a pair of free throws with 6:35 to play and after Quincy tied the game at 42-42, took another lead thanks to a conventional three-point play by Wilkinson with 4:55 to go.

A bucket by Keshaun Thomas and a pair of free throws from Bradley Longcor gave Quincy the lead for the first time at 46-45.

But after two defensive stops by both teams, CHS took their final lead of the night at 47-46 on a Horras putback basket.

The lead didn’t last as Tyler Sprick buried a three to put the Devils up two with 2:02 to play and after a defensive stop Collinsville was faced with a final dilemma, they needed to foul five times to get Quincy to start shooting free throws and most of the Blue Devils were excellent shooters.

Collinsville repeatedly went for the steal while fouling strategically. Eventually, Quincy ended up on the line where Thomas and Ralph Wires hit their free throws to seal the game.

Kahok stats

Wysinger and Wilkinson had 17 points each.

Rimar led CHS with nine rebounds while Chambers had seven. Wilkinson had four assists with Horras collecting three.

Chambers totaled four blocked shots.

CHS 71 Edwardsville 56

If you talk basketball with Collinsville coach Darin Lee you’ll hear about three things.

Making shots, defensive matchups, and rebounding (he will say turnovers should be in there too, but…)

Well, Collinsville shot 51 percent and hit 83 percent of their free throws and had all five starters in double figures. They added in a couple of different defensive matchups and outrebounded the Tigers 30-11 to win their regional semifinal by 16 over their archrivals on Feb. 22 all the way up in Quincy.

Oh yes, and they forced nine Tiger turnovers while only committing eight themselves.

“We played well offensively, it was a solid effort,” said Lee. “They were concentrating on Jake and Jamorie so we were able to get some buckets out of the others guys. Adam hit two big threes in the third quarter.”

There was no better example of the Tigers focus on Wysinger and Wilkinson than the final play of the first half.

CHS had a baseline inbounds play with seconds remaining. Wysinger broke to the baseline and three Tigers went to him while Wilkinson drew his man out of the lane by cutting to the top of the key.

Chambers slipped to the block where he took the inbounds pass from Horras and hit a layup at the buzzer to complete a 5-0 run and give CHS a 25-20 lead at the half.

In the third, Rimar and Wilkinson combined to hit four threes and score 16 points to give the Kahoks a 41-32 advantage after three.

After Rimar hit a layup to put the Kahoks up 49-37 early in the fourth the parade to the foul line began.

Collinsville made 18 of 19 free throws in the fourth to finish off the victory.

“They start fouling early,” said Lee. “That’s just something they do for their comeback strategy. Sometimes it works but I wouldn’t foul our three guards they can really shoot it.”

The Tigers had to employ that strategy due to the Kahok defense.

Edwardsville still went 21 for 40 for 48 percent from the floor. But in order to try to stop Isayah Kloster from knocking down shots as he had in the first two Edwardsville wins over the Kahoks this season, the 6-foot-8 Chambers was assigned to the versatile 6-foot-5 Kloster.

The Tiger still scored 12 points but altered his shot countless times in the lane to deal with the Kahok defender.

“We changed our matchups again,” began Lee. “With that, we were able to get a little better matchups. We went ahead and put Zach on 21 (Kloster), Nick on #1 (AJ Thilman) and Jamorie on No. 2 (Malik Allen) and that worked best for us.

“Even so they really shot it well against us all three games.”

Finally, the Kahoks dominated the boards.

Eight days before the Tigers outrebounded the Kahoks 24-12 but not on this night.

Chambers pulled down 11 while Rimar secured eight. Horras, Wysinger, and Wilkinson all had three. The team collected two.

“It shouldn’t have happened without Adam (who missed with an ankle injury) the last time but we really went and rebounded the basketball on both ends of the floor,” said Lee.

Kahok stats

Wilkinson had 20 points for CHS while Rimar had 14 and Wysinger scored 13. Horras and Chambers had 11 (to complete a double-double) apiece.

Horras had seven assists while Wilkinson had two.

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