Toughness and tenacity were the watchwords on Thursday morning at Dawdy Hawkins Gym as the Moline Maroons (11-2) suffered their first loss since early December in a physical 60-51 defeat to 3A Ranked #7 East St Louis. “We just got to get a little tougher,” The Maroons head coach Sean Taylor said during the postgame show. He added, “Tougher doesn’t mean pushing guys…it means can we get open and get the ball to the guys that we want, where we want, when we want?” The Moline offense struggled to get consistency against a stifling Flyers defense, and the Flyers’ resiliency on offense getting good looks forced Moline to try to claw back from their biggest deficit of the season (12 points) in the final quarter. There were multiple opportunities for the Maroons in the 2nd half to slice into their largest deficit of the season but every time they would cut a 10 point game to 6, or an 8 point game to 4, the Flyers would respond. Robert McCline (23 points with 5 3FG) was amazing for East St Louis, as well as a well balanced offensive attack. After an abysmal 1-17 3FG shooting performance yesterday, the Flyers daggered the Maroons in the heart from deep, connecting on 8 of their 22 attempts (an over 30% jump in 3FG shooting efficiency).
“…We made a great run to get it to 38-34 and then we turned it over 3 of the next 4 possessions. We just got to get better at that, I think we will.” Sean Taylor added during his postgame conversation with us. Sean was optimistic about his team’s effort and how hard they played all game against a tough team like the Flyers even in a loss. “I thought we played as hard as we played the whole year…we rebounded against a great offensive rebounding team, our defense was solid. We knew they were going to get some 3s and they hit some but if we can get the rebounds and not turn the ball over then we can live with those 3s.” Braden Freeman led the Maroons in scoring with 17 points (9 in the 4th) and Trey Taylor had 15. The Maroons will play the Normal West Wildcats at 3:45 in the 5th place bracket in the Pekin Tournament Thursday on qcsportsnet.com.