COVID-19 has cost East St. Louis two chances to defend its 2019 Illinois Class 3A state championship.
Two years have passed since the spectacular Terrence Hargrove, Jr., led the Flyers over Chicago Curie in a thrilling overtime contest for the state crown. The state tournament was cancelled in 2020, and Illinois schools played a limited schedule without a postseason in 2021.
The current edition of the Flyers is primed to defend the state title. With three games left in the regular season, the Flyers are 21-5 and riding high. East St. Louis pulled off one of the biggest wins of the year last Saturday, upending visiting Vashon 65-56 in the annual Border War rivalry game.
The Flyers boast one of the most potent dynamic duos in the St. Louis metro area in 6’6″ junior forward Macaleab Rich and 6’5″ senior point guard Christian Jones.
Rich is a dynamic athlete with guard skills, and he can cause big matchup problems. He is averaging 19 points and 10 rebounds a game and contributed 20 points and 12 rebounds in the Vashon showdown. Jones, a long and slender point guard, has already committed to the University of Missouri. He is averaging 15 points, five rebounds and seven assists a game and garnered 22 points, six rebounds and six assists against Vashon.
Providing size and strength up front for the Flyers is 6’8″ junior forward Demarion Brown, who averages eight points and five rebounds a game. He had 12 points and seven rebounds against Vashon. Senior guard Daveon Hawkins and juniors Mackenly Falconer and Terrell Scott provide more depth in the Flyers’ backcourt.
East St. Louis has already received a top seed in the upcoming postseason at the Highland Sub-Sectional.
DeAndre Smith headed to NFL
St. Louisan DeAndre Smith has been a fixture as a college football player and coach for more than 20 years. Now, the University City native is headed to the National Football League after being tabbed as running backs coach for the New York Giants. Smith received the call over the weekend from new Giants’ head coach Brian Daboll. Smith spent the past three seasons in a similar position at Texas Tech University.
Smith had a standout prep career at both University City and Berkeley High in the mid-1980s. He went on to star at Missouri State University, where he is a member of the school’s athletic Hall of Fame. He was a starting quarterback for the Bears, who won the Gateway Conference championship in 1989 and 1990 and advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs.
During his coaching career, Smith made stops in Illinois, Syracuse, New Mexico, UNLV, Miami of Ohio, and Northern Illinois.
Francis Howell wins GAC South
Former McCluer High basketball standout Grant Agbo has enjoyed quite a debut season as the head coach of the Francis Howell Vikings. Agbo has guided the Vikings to a 15-7 record and another Gateway Athletic Conference South championship. The Vikings clinched the title with a thrilling 67-66 victory over visiting Troy last Friday night. Howell rallied from a 15-point deficit to pull off the victory and improved their conference record to 8-0 and continue its stranglehold on the conference.
Senior guard Gabe James provided the late-game heroics with a 3-pointer from the corner in the closing seconds for the win. The 6’1″ senior guard is averaging 15 points, three assists and three steals a game while shooting 42 percent from 3-point range. Fellow senior guard Booker Simmons is averaging 11.9 points and 4.6 rebounds while junior point guard Dwight Lomax is averaging 10 points a game.
High School highlights
*Senior guard Brian Taylor of DeSmet scored his 1,000th career point on Saturday at CBC. The 6’4″ Taylor is having a big senior year, averaging 19 points a game.
*Sophomore center John Bol of CBC had a big triple-double in a victory over DeSmet last Saturday. The 7’2″ Bol had 10 points, 13 rebounds and 11 blocked shots. He has already received numerous Division I scholarship offers.
*Junior guard Raychel Jones of Vashon also joined the “Triple-Double Club” last week when she had 38 points, 16 rebounds and 11 blocks in a victory over Gateway STEM.
*Freshman girls sensation Jordan Speiser of Lutheran-St. Charles scored 49 points and made 11 of her 13 attempts from 3-point range in the Cougars victory over Ellington at the Missouri Hall of Fame Classic in Cape Girardeau last Saturday. The 6’0″ guard is leading the St. Louis metro area in scoring.
*Junior guard Shakara McCline of East St. Louis had 26 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and five steals in the Flyerettes’ 52-46 come-from-behind victory over Life for Life.
Games on tap
The Big Game: Westminster at Vashon, Saturday, 3 p.m. – This is a rematch of last year’s Class 4 state championship game. Vashon is currently 18-3 while Westminster is 21-1. Vashon is one of the state’s top contenders in Class 4 while Westminster is one of the state’s best teams in Class 5.
Chaminade at CBC, Friday, 6 p.m.
DeSmet at SLUH, Friday, noon
Borgia at Cardinal Ritter, Friday, 7 p.m.
Eureka at Webster Groves (girls), Friday, 6 p.m.
