With the resurgent play of one of East Marion’s stars, the Eagles advanced to the district championship game Wednesday with a hard-fought win over Collins on their home court.
As the host of the Region 8-2A Tournament, East Marion (11-2, 8-1) took care of business to outlast Collins 64-49 in the semifinals and played St. Patrick in the title game Friday, but results were unavailable at press time.
Head coach Calvin Brown said it’s a big step for the Eagles because Collins beat East Marion in the district consolation game last season, making the Eagles the No. 4 seed coming out of Region 8-2A.
“They made us travel to Philadelphia, and we ended up being a one-and-done so that’s progress,” he said Thursday. “We know we’ll come out of the district better than we did last year, so now it’s on to the next challenge, which is trying to bring another district title to East Marion and secure home-court (advantage) throughout the playoffs.”
East Marion had a 21-4 lead early in the second quarter Wednesday, but Collins went on an 18-8 run over the final seven minutes of the first half to cut it to 29-22. Every time the Eagles started to pull away in the second half, the Tigers would go on a mini run of their own to keep the game within striking distance.
What kept the Eagles from being able to run away with the game despite clearly being the more talented team was Collins’ zone defense, which kept East Marion from being able to make clean entry passes to the post and made the Eagles have to take more jump shots than they would like. Brown said passing has always been a concern at East Marion.
“This team works at it and we have moments where we’re pretty good at it, but passing is something that is always under construction in my whole tenure here,” he said.
With a district title on the line and playoffs right around the corner, there was no better time for vintage Vashon Sims to make an appearance as he put up 18 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. At times this season the 6-foot-4 star point guard has flashed the ability to drive into the paint and make plays, but too often he’s been reluctant to do so and has settled for shooting from the perimeter.
Before his accident and subsequent rehab and comeback, Sims’ bread and butter was attacking downhill and utilizing his size, strength and athleticism to get to the rim. Wednesday night, though, he was aggressive driving downhill into the paint to either score, draw contact to get to the free throw line or dump off a pass to a cutter. It was one of the few times this season where he stayed aggressive from start to finish, which opened up the offense more for Caleb Rawls to get his shot and for shooters like Cameron Walker and Deuce Johnson to get open looks from behind the arc.
“Every day that goes by he’s losing more weight and gaining more mobility and more confidence along with it,” Brown said. “He’s already lost over 30 pounds. He really swelled up when he was immobile.”
The veteran coach added that throughout the season Sims has resisted exerting too much energy as he has worked his way back into shape so that he can remain fresh late in games. Now he’s at the point where he can blow past a defender and still have the stamina to get back on defense.
Rawls tied a career-high with seven blocks to go along with an efficient 19 points on 5-of-7 shooting and nine rebounds. Brown said it’s definitely a plus to have a deterrent at the rim defensively like Rawls but that the Eagles can’t fall into the trap of using Rawls’ shot-blocking prowess as a crutch.
“We definitely don’t want to depend on that. When he has to get over to protect the rim, that means somebody allowed somebody to get to the rim. That’s not the way our defense is designed,” he said. “It’s definitely great to have and a credit to him, but it’s not something we ever want to totally depend on.”
The Eagles also got key contributions from Walker (13 points, two assists and two steals), Carlos Stubbs (eight points) and Johnson (three points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals).
By making it to the district title game, the Eagles will either be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed from the region and will host their first-round playoff game next week.
