COLLINSVILLE – Friday marked the opening night of the Southwestern Conference boys basketball slate.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
The Alton Redbirds were ready for it.
They took to the same court that their season ended on back in March, taking on the Collinsville Kahoks in what was their home-opener.
Alton used a couple of first-half runs to pull away from Collinsville and win convincingly 65-43, improving to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the SWC.
DeAndre Brown put the first points on the board for Collinsville in what would be their only lead. From there, Alton went on a 15-2 blitz, forcing the Kahoks into a timeout with 2:40 remaining in the first.
The Redbirds got a three-pointer each from Tysean Jones, O’Bryant Brown, and Ryan Howard. Semaj Stampley netted his team’s fourth triple after the timeout to take an 18-6 lead after one quarter of play.
They’d continue that push, closing the first half on a 9-2 run to take a 33-17 halftime lead. The Kahoks never turned it back into a game, trailing 47-30 after three.
Collinsville falls to 2-2 on the season and 0-1 in the conference.
“It’s a hard place to play,” Alton head coach Dyan Dudley said about Vergil Fletcher Gym, “and credit to them. What an environment.”
“It’s always interesting. I’ve learned this from [coach] JaQuail [Townser] and Coach [John] Steen; last year, every time we’d go somewhere, it was always some big event. Unveiling this, a hall of fame night, an alumni night, or something. But to be honest, I knew our dudes were going to perform in that environment. That’s just how they are.”
The Kahoks, playing in their home-opener, debuted a brand-new hype video that played on their recently installed jumbotron, part of numerous improvements around Fletcher Gym.
But Alton came to rain on their parade.
“I’m proud of our kids for the way they started the game, throwing the first punch and just staying on them,” Dudley said.
Three Redbirds ended up in double-digit scoring. Ryan Howard popped off for 21 points while Stampley contributed 13 and Brown had 10.
“Ryan [Howard] could average 20 if he wanted to,” Dudley said. “I like our options offensively.”
It was a career high for Howard, one of 11 upperclassmen on the team.
The Kahoks were led by Jordan Taylor with 15 points and Brown with 13.
Dudley acknowledged that this was just round one of the grueling 12-game Southwestern Conference schedule. He was just proud of the way his team came out to play, one player in particular.
“One thing about our kids is they’re going to fight and compete,” he said.
“I thought the tone of the game was set by Jamarion [Green], especially on the glass in the first half, and then our guys rallied around him. He’s just an animal on the glass; he has an act, plays hard. His rebounding, when [Collinsville] were shooting quick shots, to allow us to go in transition, I thought that was the key to the game.”
Green finished with nine points.
“We were ready to hoop in this gym again,” Green said. “Last time, it wasn’t very good, but this time went better. We’ve been waiting for this since we saw it on the schedule.”
The last time Alton played inside Vergil Fletcher was in last season’s IHSA Class 4A Collinsville Sectional semifinal against the Quincy Blue Devils, a 56-33 loss that ended the Redbirds’ season.
“We came up short last year,” Stampley said.
Alton is now a very different team, having graduated 11 seniors.
“A lot of new guys are just getting the flow,” Stampley said. “It’s fun. It’s a new experience for them, and as a senior leader, it’s just fun showing them what we can do. We just came out tonight and handled business.”
