On the money STERLING – There may or may n
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| The Sauk Valley Predators' Carlton Fay (left) gets fouled by the Chicago Muscle's Nick Livas as Fay goes up for a shot Friday night at Sterling High School's Musgrove Fieldhouse. (Philip Marruffo/pmarruffo@saukvalley.com) |
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STERLING – There may or may not have been an informal bet between the coaching staffs of the Sauk Valley Predators and Chicago Muscle in Friday night’s Premier Basketball League game at Musgrove Fieldhouse.
If there was, the smart money was on the Predators.
Paced by a sparkling 38-point outburst from shooting guard Desmond Holloway, the Predators used a late spurt to gain a 127-115 victory before a big crowd in Sterling.
Pre-game talk was about stingy defense played so far by the Muscle (3-2), who had been allowing about 90 points per game. The Predators (4-1) took it as a challenge to surpass that mark.
“Our game is up-tempo, up-tempo, up-tempo, and Chicago, I guess they made a bet that we couldn’t score 100 points,” Predators coach Kevin Keathley said. “They’ve been holding teams to 90 points a game and have got some players that can really clog up the lane. I just told our guys keep playing our tempo and eventually we’ll have our two [or] three runs.
“I didn’t believe they were a team that could match us in terms of running the floor and putting points on the board.”
Holloway noted the bulletin-board material regarding the Muscle’s defense was a source of inspiration.
“Coach Keathley, he took that very personally,” Holloway said. “His style of play, he wants us to get up and down. Once he heard about that, he was real fired up to prove them wrong – that we could actually score over 100.”
Muscle coach Jim Condill produced a sly smile when asked about any sort of pregame wager, saying he wasn’t involved, and it was likely just some banter among assistant coaches. He did say he had watched tape of the Predators, and figured with their speed and athleticism, they’d be a hard team to handle.
“We’re OK defensively and we’re hopefully going to be better,” Condill said, “but I had a feeling they would step it past a level we’re not ready for yet. We were not ready for all that penetration stuff and how to handle it. We haven’t quite got that far on the drawing board.”
The Predators were a red-hot 47-for-85 (55.2 percent) from the field, with the 6-foot-3 Holloway leading the way. He connected on 15 of 18 from the field and eight of 10 free throws to score 38 points, a single-game team-best this season.
Holloway’s all-time best was at Wabash Valley junior college two seasons ago, when he had 40 points in a game.
“It wasn’t even that I was feeling it,” Holloway said. “It was that our point guard [Herman Favors] kept making good plays. They kept watching him, so I was just making backdoors cuts. It was layups every time.”
Favors finished with 17 points and 14 assists, with just two turnovers. Carlton Fay scored 24 points, Antwon Harris had 20 and Justin Tubbs added 14.
Tubbs had a the signature play of the game. The Predators led just 98-94 with 9 minutes remaining before going on a 10-0 run. The surge was capped off by a spectacular dunk by the 6-3 Tubbs, with a perfect alley-oop pass from Favors.
“It sparked the entire bench,” Tubbs said, “and usually something like that will actually spark the entire gym. We feed off the crowd. When the crowd goes crazy over something like that, it just ignites us.”
The play made the score 108-94, and the Muscle didn’t get closer than 11 points the rest of the game.
Marcel Anderson led Chicago with 23 points, Rico Hill had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Nick Livas had 18 points and Casey Love added 16.
Star of the game: Desmond Holloway, Predators, 38 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists.
Key performers: Carlton Fay, Predators, 24 points, 7 rebounds; Herman Favors, Predators, 17 points, 14 assists; Marcel Anderson, Chicago, 23 points.
Up next: Predators at Central Illinois Drive (Bloomington), 1:05 p.m. Saturday
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