Mt. Carmel, Ill. – As good a team as Wabash Valley is fast becoming on offense, it is defense that is winning games for them.
Shawnee found that out the hard way on Wednesday in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference opener for both teams at Spencer Sports Center.
WVC used defense to overhaul the Saints early in the second half, then buoyed by the shooting of freshman Josh Jones, Jr., went on to post an 85-70 GRAC win. It was the fourth straight win for the Warriors since an opening-night setback. Shawnee fell to 0-2 overall with the loss.
"Shawnee is a tough team. They're well-coached and always come in here and play us hard," said Warrior coach Mike Carpenter. "They jumped on us early. We had to fight and claw our way back."
Trailing by as many as 12 points on two occasions in the first half, Wabash Valley (4-1, 1-0 in GRAC) closed to within four points, 45-41, by halftime.
Carpenter said his team "didn't panic" at the opening deficit. "The ball started to go in a little later in the first half."
At the outset of the second half, though, the Warriors forced Shawnee into five consecutive turnovers. At about the same time, Jones got hot, scoring 17 of his game-high 23 points in the last 20 minutes.
Jones, a 6-foot-6 freshman from California who in the last few days has witnessed snow for the first time in his life, put together his own eight-point run, featuring back-to-back 3-point field goals followed by an inside cut to the basket.
"My guys, they kept finding me, and kept telling me to be confident," Jones said. "Early on I had a couple of turnovers, but the coaches didn't get on me, and my teammates picked me up and told me to keep playing."
WVC outscored Shawnee 22-9 in the first 12 minutes of the second half to take control, 63-54, then further increased the margin to 15 points in the four minutes that followed.
"We've got some things to clean up, but if we can stay locked in and stay focused, we could be really good defensively, because of our length and out size," Carpenter said.
Another freshman, 6-8 Deshaun Nettles, is helping to lead the way on defense. He collected four of his team-leading nine blocked shots against the Saints.
"I was able to help get those blocks," Nettles said. "I'm not really worried about teams trying to score on us" because of the help he gets on the inside.
Guard TreyVon Smith added 13 points, hitting two 3-pointers in the first half that seemed to jump start the offense. There were two other Warriors in double figures: Issac Stanback (12 points) and Jamison Epps (10).
Shawnee (0-2, 0-1) was led by Keon Jones with 20 points, followed by Tyreek Montgomery with 16. Jones, who added 10 rebounds to his stat line, produced the first double-double against the Warriors this season.
WVC controlled the boards otherwise, 42-30.
The Warriors have played four games in the span of seven days, and one more short turnaround lies ahead. Lewis & Clark (0-1 after a 91-59 loss to Southwestern on Monday)) visits on Wednesday, in a stand-alone game that still has a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.