James B. Ritter | For The Telegraph
GODFREY — Alton coach Eric Smith needed just two words to sum up the difference between his team’s first-half and second-half performances in Friday’s Southwestern Conference boys basketball game against Collinsville.
“Night and day,” Smith quipped. “Night and day.”
The Redbirds turned a seven-point halftime lead into a runaway in the second quarter and rolled to a 66-37 victoryover the Kahoks at Alton High. The victory extended Alton’s record to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the SWC heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. nonconference game against Soldan in the CBC Shootout.
“We needed to change everything in the second half,” Smith said. “We didn’t have any energy in the first half and were were beyond bad defensively.”
Were the Redbirds beyond good in the second half?
“We played a lot better,” Smith said. “We as coaches challenged the team at halftime. We told them we needed to get after (Collinsville). We told them they have got to be self-starters. The energy can’t come from the coaches.”
As it turned out, the Redbirds indeed displayed plenty of energy after halftime. In the second half, Alton’s Marcus Latham scored eight of his game-high 22 points.
“He played a good second half,” Smith said of Latham. “He started letting the offense work to get him shots. In the second half, I thought our shot selection was better. It was like night and day, too.”
Maurice Edwards added 15 points for the Redbirds, with 13 of them coming in the first half. Collinsville was led by Zach flora’s 10 points.
Alton led the Kahoks just 32-25 at halftime, but turned on the afterburners in the third quarter. The Redbirds went on a tear and grabbed a more comfortable margin.
Sam Webb scored a three-point play to open the second half, narrowing the gap to 32-28. But from that point, Alton went on a 11-5 run. Kevin Caldwell got it started with a layup to make it 34-28. That was followed by a layup from Tre Smith with 6:20 left, then back-to-back baskets by Latham, the second of those a steal and layup to make it 40-28 with 5:30 left.
Latham, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 14 of his points in the second half, including six early in the fourth quarter. The Redbirds led 53-35 heading into the fourth quarter. As the final quarter began, Alton was more deliberate and worked the ball – and still extended the lead.
Latham hit a pull up jumper with 5:58 left to make it 55-35. That was followed by a trey from Jordan Golley and two more baskets from Latham to give the Redbirds a 62-35 lead.
The Redbirds’ defense forced the Kahoks into 16 turnovers, with many resulting directly in Alton baskets at the other end of the floor.
“When we get teams to turn the ball over, we can get down the floor,” Smith said. “We did that much better in the second half also.”
Collinsville, which dropped to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the Back
