For the past few weeks, the JHS boys’ basketball team has been preparing for the season-opening tournament in Alton this past week. It seems like all of their hard work paid off: the Crimsons won the tournament, going 4-0.
Though the four wins were sloppy, the Crimsons progress shone through. Monday they played O’Fallon for a nail-biting 66-62 win, followed by a 63-52 victory over Vashon Wednesday. JHS finished the tournament with a 52-43 victory over Alton Friday, and a 54-39 win over a winless Northwest Academy team Saturday.
“It shows that we have a lot of talent, but we do need to improve. We have to improve our ball-handling and cut down our turnovers if we want to compete with the quicker teams in our conference like Southeast and Lanphier,” senior captain Josh Peak said about JHS’s success so far.
Along with winning the tournament, the Crimsons had three players make the Alton Tip-Off Classic All-Tournament team. Payton Dugan (first team), Dalton Keene (second team), and Josh Peak (first team/tournament MVP), were all a part of that team.
The Crimsons have the best season opening record in the past 15 years.
“Hopefully it’s a good sign for the rest of the season. We plan to continue to improve and win games,” said the boys’ head coach J.R. Dugan.
The Crimsons hope to continue to improve their record this Saturday at the Prairie Capital Convention Center against Crete-Moneê