SEB displays strong defensive effort, defeats Neoga 52-30

The St. Elmo/Brownstown High School boys basketball team picked up its second win of the season Friday night, dominating conference foe Neoga, 52-30.
After a shaky defensive effort in a 62-57 loss against South Central last Tuesday, the Eagles were able to come out to a hot start against the Indians.
“I thought we played pretty well. I thought we had a couple breakdowns the last game against South Central. We didn’t defend like we should have, so we worked on it and the kids came out and did that part of the game fine,” head coach Greg Feezel said.  “We kind of forgot to bring our offense along with it. Sometimes that’s the way it happens, but we did get it going after a while.”
Junior forward Landon Feezel put the Eagles on the board early, with a mid-range jump shot. Neoga responded with a basket of their own, but that would be the extent of its scoring in the first quarter.
SEB closed out the first quarter n an 8-0 run to take a 10-2 lead going into the second quarter. The Indians continued to struggle on offense, scoring only four points in the second quarter.
The Eagles outscored Neoga 8-4 in the second quarter, going into the second half with a comfortable 18-6 lead. 
Senior Noah Flowers extended the Eagles lead to 20-6, knocking down a jump shot to kick off the third quarter. Neoga responded with a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 20-11. However, SEB continued its stellar defensive play, allowing only three more points in the third.
A pair of buckets inside the paint from Brock Oberlink and Kyle Hardimon closed out the third quarter for the Eagles, leading 30-14.
Neoga started the fourth on a 5-0 run to cut the Eagles lead to 30-19.  Once again though, the Eagles pulled away. Feezel led an 8-0 run with a pair of free throws and layups, giving SEB a 38-19 lead.
Feezel found an open Trey Pasley for a pair of three-pointers late in the fourth quarter, proving to be more than enough as SEB came away with a 52-30 win.
Aside from a 22-point fourth quarter, the Eagles couldn’t find the same offensive success they did on defense, finishing the game 19-for-48 from the field and 12-for-21 from the free throw line.
“We had a defensive stop on a trap and turned the ball over. It seemed like once we did that, everybody kept going,” Feezel said. "Chalk this one up as a defensive win; offensively, we were a little ornery. That happens sometimes. It was nice to watch us go out and defend.”
Landon Feezel led the Eagles in the win, finishing with a team-high 16 points, two rebounds, four assists and three steals. Other contributions came from Trey Pasley, with 10 points, three rebounds, one assist and one block; Hardimon, with a team-high eight rebounds, six points, one assist and two blocks; Flowers, with six points, five rebounds, one steal and one block; Oberlink with three points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal; and Klayton Kroll, with six points, seven rebounds, one assist and two steals.
“To mention one kid out of everybody, Klayton Kroll had a wonderful ball game. He had a really good ball game for us,” coach Feezel said. “That kid has a motor that won’t quit. I was really impressed with him. “
On the losing side, Neoga’s Jesse Holt finished with a team-high 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting, along with one assist and two steals.
With the win the Eagles improved to 2-1 on the season. However, coach Feezel believes his team has plenty of room to grow moving forward.
“We just have to show up on our home floor with a little more energy. We have to come to practice with a varsity attitude,” Feezel said. “We're trying to raise our play to a varsity level and were getting there. These guys have had a lot of things that changed. We are adapting.”
 

Landon Feezel (32) puts in a layup during the fourth quarter Friday night. Feezel finished the game with a team-high 16 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter.

Klayton Kroll (20) goes up for layup over two Neoga defenders Friday night.