Menu
Charleston routs East Prairie 83-49, play for its 13th-straight district title
CHARLESTON, Mo. — They’re back again.
For the 13th-consecutive year, the Charleston boys’ basketball team has a chance to win a district championship after defeating East Prairie in the Class 3 District 2 semifinals 83-49 Tuesday night at Charleston High School.
"With this young squad, I didn't know where we would end up, but here we are,” Charleston head coach Jamarcus Williams said. “We have another opportunity to win 11-straight and add one to the trophy case. Our guys know what's up for grabs. Hopefully, I can get them fired up to grab that plaque.”
Despite a lopsided outcome, Charleston did have a battle on its hands in the early goings, as it only led the Eagles by six, 19-13, after the opening period.
Twenty-four hours removed from an emotional victory over Chaffee in overtime, East Prairie came out attacking the paint and drawing contact. The Eagles shot 10 free throws in the opening quarter, making eight of them.
"First quarter, we came out attacking. We were determined to put pressure on them defensively,” East Prairie head coach Casey Knight said. “I thought we did a good job of driving and kicking and getting to the rim or getting them in foul trouble. In the second quarter, credit them for upping their defensive intensity, and their press hurt us some and led to easy buckets for them. Fatigue got us a little bit, and we don't always play the likes of Charleston.”
There was no shortage of highlight-worthy moments during the opening frame, as sophomore Rico Coleman threw down a pair of dunks during the period that energized the fans.
His first flush came after a steal to make it 6-5, while his second pushed the Bluejays lead to seven, 17-10, with 1:20 left. Coleman finished with a game-high 16 points on 8 of 12 shooting while adding five rebounds and four steals.
Opening the second quarter, senior Luke Nichols knocked-down a three-pointer to push the No. 1-seed out to a 22-15 advantage.
However, East Prairie clawed right back into the game with a 5-0 run that saw them cut the lead to two points, 22-20.
For the rest of the game, the Eagles never got any closer.
From the 5:45 mark of the second quarter-and-on, the Bluejays went on an 8-0 run to push their lead out to double-digits, 30-20. They would close the first half with a sizable 15-point lead, 42-27, and would never look back.
"I pointed out a few things that I wanted to see cleaned up,” said Williams on what he told his team during the break. “I made it extremely important to those guys that you all need to win the third quarter. Win the third quarter and try to win it big because we wanted that to be the knock-out punch.”
A “knock-out punch” was what Williams wanted, and his players obliged as Charleston opened the second half on a 16-2 run to space it's lead out to 29, 58-29.
From that point, Charleston cruised to the end as it advanced its season while ending another in the process.
Outside of Coleman, nine different Charleston players registered points on Tuesday, with four others reaching double-figures.
Nichols and Fletravion Stanback each had 14 points, while Dentrez Ewing had 11 points, nine rebounds, and six blocks. EK Davis added 10 points to the mix as well.
Senior Evan Howell led the Eagles with 15 points, while Wyatt Williams had 11. Howell is the only senior on the East Prairie roster this season.
"He's good at his craft. He's been able to shoot the ball for a long time, and he works at it and puts a tremendous amount of effort into it,” Knight said. “It's been special watching him go and hone his craft, perfect it, and continue to improve.”
The Bluejays play No. 6 seed Saxony Lutheran, who upset second-seeded Scott City, for the Class 3, District 2 championship on Thursday at Bloomfield High School.
| East Prairie | 13 | 14 | 11 | 11 | — | 49 |
| Charleston | 19 | 23 | 31 | 10 | — | 83 |
EAST PRAIRIE (49) — Evan Howell 15, Wyatt Williams 11, Jase Aycock 9, Garrison Scott 8, Cooper Towe 7, Hayden Ellis 1. FG 14, FT 19-27, F 17. (3-pointers: Howell 3, Aycock. Fouled out: Towe)
CHARLESTON (83) — Rico Coleman 16, Fletravion Stanback 14, Luke Nichols 14, Dentrez Ewing 11, EK Davis 10, Evontrez Hill 5, Rommie Turner 5, Almareion Williams 4, Ko’Terrion Owens 2, Tyrion Sinks 2. FG 32, FT 13-18, F 22. (3-pointers: Nichols 3, Stanback 2, Hill. Fouled out: none)