Rather, all opponents from the Southwestern Conference light a fire in the East St. Louis dynamic duo.
"It's a conference game, and a rivalry game," Jones said. "I love those intense games with a big crowd. Those are the types of games I love playing in."
Jones and Rich led the way for Friday as East St. Louis defeated Collinsville 61-55 in an SWC game Friday night at East St. Louis High School.
"Those are the guys, they make it happen," East St. Louis coach Mark Chambers said. "They're tough and smart."
East St. Louis (6-1 overall, 2-0 SWC), the No. 2 large school in the STLhighschoolsports.com rankings, picked up its fourth consecutive win over the Kahoks (3-3, 1-2).
Jones, who has signed with the University of Missouri, led all scorers with 20 points. He also had six rebounds and six assists.
Bench, depth carry Webster Groves past Miller Career, sets up finale with loaded Staley
Fort Zumwalt South claims fourth succrssive Warrior Classic title game win over Marquette
O'Fallon keeps on rolling with SWC win over Alton
Jones, Rich help East St. Louis hold off Collinsville in conference showdown
Boys basketball notebook: Vianney scoring like never before; Seckman ends eight-game skid to Hillsboro
Rich pulled down his second successive double-double against the Kahoks, ripping down 12 rebounds to go along with his 16 points.
"They're both great players," Collinsville coach Darrin Lee said. "There is no question about that. The zone helped us contain them a little more. We're a man-to-man team, but it didn't work for us. They're a hard matchup."
The Flyers raced out to an 11-0 lead and hit eight of their first nine shots.
"We wanted to start fast and we did," Chambers said. "The only thing is that we didn't sustain that throughout four quarters. We're still putting things together. I like our energy to start and that's how we want things to go."
Despite facing a double-digit deficit for much of the first half, the Kahoks clawed their way back into the game and outscored East St. Louis 12-5 in the third quarter.
"We dug ourselves a hole, but our kids will never stop battling," Lee said. "We got back in the game, but it was too big of a hole."
Devin Davis scored a team-high 15 points and had four assists for the Kahoks.
Dayton Horras' second of back-to-back 3-pointers brought the Kahoks to within four points with less than 30 seconds to play, ... Click here to read full article
ARTICLE SOURCE:
