Prost powers Rams past Cahokia
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BALL MOVEMENT — Mt. Vernon’s Eli Prost looks for an open teammate Saturday against Cahokia.
Sentinel Photo/PAUL HINES
UP THE COURT — Mt. Vernon’s LJ Shelby dribbles the ball up the court Saturday against Cahokia.
Sentinel Photo/PAUL HINES
By PAUL HINES
phines@morningsentinel.com
CAHOKIA — In the absence of a pair of top scorers, Eli Prost emerged with a monster game Saturday night against the Comanches.
The Rams steady senior poured in 26 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in Mt. Vernon’s victory. The Rams pulled away late for a 58-45 South Seven Conference victory. The victory marked the second straight for the Rams without leading scorers Dave Barnes and Cale Maurer.
“We’re going to have to play really well together, be connected,” Mt. Vernon coach Tim Holloway said. “Everyone was going to have to do their part. We got that both nights. We had some great individual performances this weekend.”
Cahokia led throughout the opening quarter as Holloway used a pair of timeouts. The Comanches were up 15-7 after the Rams’ second stoppage in play at the 2:12 mark. Cahokia still led 17-13 at the quarter break. That came after Shelby scored in the final minute to close the gap.
Prost erupted on offense in the second quarter and helped the Rams grab a slender halftime advantage. He finished the game 9 of 14 from the field. The senior scored 13 of his points in the period.
“(We’ve) been trying to get Eli to be more aggressive, and he picked a good night for it,” Holloway said. “Really he and LJ carried us tonight. And the other guys played pretty smart. They didn’t try to do too much. Offensively, they went to the hot hand. They did a good job after the first of the game of really battling, taking care of the ball.”
A Prost 3-pointer gave the Rams a 22-19 lead midway through the quarter. He drained another long range shot to push the margin to 28-21. Mt. Vernon still led 32-28 at halftime after NaZavion Nesbit scored the final points of the half.
The Rams threatened to pull away in the middle of the third quarter. Prost connected on a 3-pointer to give his team a 41-30 cushion. Cahokia answered with back-to-back buckets, closing the gap to 41-34. Mt. Vernon took a 44-36 lead into the last quarter.
“We talked at halftime. They had 11 points off 50-50 balls, not that we weren’t going for them, but they were just quicker to the ball,” Holloway said. “I thought our guys did a better job diving on those in the second half.”
Cahokia cut the deficit to 44-38 at the start of the fourth after Kaylen Smith hit a shot. Mt. Vernon pushed the margin back to double digits with buckets from Nelson and Shelby. The Rams largest lead was 15 after back-to-back scores from Nelson.
Mt. Vernon improved to 12-2 overall and 2-1 in the conference. The Rams host Marion on Friday night.
Mt. Vernon 58 Cahokia 45
Mt. Vernon 13-32-44-58
Cahokia 17-28-36-45
MT.VERNON: Jashawn Staples 1-3 1-2 3, Jayden Wilson 1-1 0-0 2, LJ Shelby 7-10 1-4 17, Eli Prost 9-14 2-4 26, NaZavion Nesbit 2-7 0-0 4, Daniel Nelson 3-8 0-0 6.
CAHOKIA: Taven Miller 9-19 0-0 19, C’narri Griffin 4-10 2-2 11, Dominic Brown 1-3 0-0 2, Corrion Raiford 1-4 1-3 3, Zetaveyon Grant 1-2 0-2 2, George Roberts 2-3 0-0 4, Jaydin Robinson 1-1 0-0 2, Kaylen Smith 1-1 0-0 2.
