East Prairie handles Saxony Lutheran at home 78-52

sports@standard-democrat.com

EAST PRAIRIE ­-- With the exception of a brief let-down midway through the second half, the East Prairie Eagles had little trouble handling visiting Saxony Lutheran Thursday night.

Led by Damion Tipler's double-double, East Prairie dominated the first two quarters before holding a double-digit lead the entire second half en rout to a 78-52 final.

East Prairie junior Seth Bays (2) works his way past a Saxony Lutheran defender on Thursday night at East Prairie High School. (Brent Shipman photo)

East Prairie junior Seth Bays (2) works his way past a Saxony Lutheran defender on Thursday night at East Prairie High School. (Brent Shipman photo)

"We're not used to being in that situation," Eagles' head coach Casey Knight said of his team's 25-point halftime lead. "We're definitely a much improved team and we still have a lot of improving to do with years of good teams to come.

"But being so young last year and everybody being sophomores we hadn't been in that situation a whole lot. I was proud of them and obviously we learned from it."

Tipler finished the night with a game-high 22 points to go along with 10 rebounds. It was his five buckets in the first quarter alone that fueled East Prairie early to go into the second quarter leading 22-15.

It was in those final eight minutes of the first half that the Eagles played one of their more impressive strings of basketball this season.

After allowing a 3-pointer to open the period, East Prairie held the Crusaders without a basket for over five minutes, all the while reeling off 17 straight points.

Seth Bays got the streak started by converting on a natural 3-pointer and followed suit with back-to-back baskets from behind the arc. He ended up scoring 11 straight points and finished the quarter with 14 points as the Eagles outpaced Saxony 23-5.

Tipler added a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter and the team finished with six in period to go ahead 45-20 entering halftime.

"We have the ability to be a great inside and the ability to be a great outside team," Knight said. "So far it's been one game we have the inside working and one game we have the outside working. That first half both were working and clicking. I told them it's scary how good we can be if we do that and play defense.

"We got the ball inside and established the paint. I think that opened up outside and we knocked them down."

With a Mack Marcum bucket to start the third quarter the Eagles took their biggest lead of the night, at 27-points, and looked on the verge of turbo-clocking the Crusaders.

Not long after, however, Saxony put together rally that more than cut their deficit in half and left East Prairie looking for answers. The Eagles still held a 27-point advantage when the Crusaders closed out the third with a 10-4 that included a pair of threes in the final minute. After Bays opened up the fourth with a steal and a layup Saxony staged a 12-2 rally that closed them within 12 points, 61-49

with 3:21 to play.

"That's two games in a row we've done that," Crusaders' head coach Tim Winkler said. "Luckily the other night we were able to come back from just a seven point halftime deficit, but when you're down by 25 (at the half) it's a long way back."

A Ryan Palmer 3-pointer with 3:05 remaining closed Saxony's deficit to 11 points, but it was on the Eagles next series that they started to regain control.

A pair of Marcum free throws started a run where East Prairie quickly pushed their lead back out to 20 points. They closed out the game scoring 15 unanswered points in the final three minutes for a 78-52 final.

"We got a little satisfied and when we saw the lead chipping away we got a little careless," Knight said. "I called a timeout with around three-and-a-half minutes left and we jumped (the lead) back out. We actually ended up winning the half by one point. We were able to correct out mistakes and jump it back up there."

Behind Tipler's 22 points, Bays closed out his night with 17 points for the Eagles (7-8), including a 15 point effort in the first half. Marcum and Dustin Bryars had 13 and 12 points respectively.

For Saxony (12-9), Jake Lake had a team-high 17 points while Ryan Palmer and Zach Beal added 11 and 10 points each to the cause. "I don't think we played with much intensity in the first half and that's two games in a row we haven't done that," Winkler said. "We came out with a good intensity for the third quarter and about halfway of the fourth and got their lead down to 11. Then they hit a bucket to go up by 13 and we just kind of imploded."

East Prairie 22 23 12 21 -- 78

Saxony 15 5 17 15 -- 52

EAST PRAIRIE (78) - Seth Johnson 3, Seth bays 17, Dustin Bryars 12, Brett Ellis 2, Mack Marcum 13, Michael Graham 2, Damion Tipler 22, Deverance Jones 2, Brandon Evans 5. FG 31, FT 9-13, F 9. (3-pointers: Johnson 1, Bays 2, Bryars 1, Marcum 1, Tipler 2. Fouled out: none.)

SAXONY (52) - Zach Beal 10, Chase Steffens 5, Ryan Palmer 11, Elwood Voss 4, Hunter Coe 5, Jack Lake 17. FG 21, FT 3-4, F 11. (3-pointers: Beal 1, Steffens 1, Palmer 3, Coe 1, Lake 1. Fouled out: none.)