Shoot to thrill: Sizzling second half carries Illinois boys to victory in inaugural Muddy River Showcase

QUINCY — The spirited battles Jeremiah and Joshua Talton have engaged in either on the family basketball court or during open gyms at John Wood Community College moved to a much more public and brighter stage Saturday.

That didn’t mitigate Jeremiah’s height advantage.

“Let me get to be about 6-foot-7 and then it would be pretty fair,” the 6-foot-1 Joshua said with a smile.

Size mattered just as much as 6-foot-6 Jeremiah’s shooting stroke did as the combination proved lethal in the inaugural Muddy River Showcase.

The Quincy High School all-stater went 5 for 5 from 3-point range in the second half, spearheading a sizzling shooting effort by the Illinois all-stars that enabled them to turn a 35-31 halftime lead into a 95-55 rout of Missouri in the cross-river rivalry game at JWCC’s Student Activity Center.

Jeremiah Talton finished with a game-high 35 points, going 6 of 11 from 3-point range while collecting six rebounds and two steals to earn Illinois MVP honors.

“Jeremiah is just a fantastic player,” said Joshua Talton, the Monroe City product and Jeremiah’s cousin. “We tried to box-and-one him, but none of us could really guard him.”

Well, he didn’t score on Dalton Berhorst.

“But I only guarded him for two or three possessions,” the Canton point guard said with a chuckle.

Those tasked more often with slowing Jeremiah Talton did so in the first half.

He had nine points in the first half, going 3 of 11 from the field and 1 of 6 from 3-point range. Overall, Illinois shot just 37.8 percent from the field in the first half and 20 percent from 3-point range.

“In the locker room, the coaches were like, ‘Keep moving the ball and get the best shot,’” Jeremiah Talton said. “Everybody started hitting.”

That’s because defense fueled the offense.

Illinois held Missouri to five points during a nine-minute stretch of the second half and watched a 38-35 advantage blossom into a 66-40 lead. The Show-Me Staters went 2 of 13 from the field and 0 of 3 from the free-throw line while committing two turnovers in that stretch.

The Land of Lincolners went 10 of 12 from the field and 4 of 6 from the line in the same stretch. Jeremiah Talton went 3 of 3 from 3-point range and scored 14 points in the run.

“After the first half, I was like, ‘OK, we’ve got to come back out and play better defense and our shots will start falling,’” Illinois forward Logan Robbins said. “Then all of a sudden, whoa. Everything started falling, but we started locking up. We really started playing some defense.”

The Illinois squad knew it was necessary.

“One of the first things I did at halftime was ask them, ‘What do you have? What are you seeing? What do we need to do?’” said Greg Altmix, the Liberty coach who guided the Illinois all-stars. “Here we are in an all-star game and the first word out of their mouth is defense. How many times during an all-star game do you hear players say defense? Not many.”

Even after Jaedyn Robertson broke the Illinois run with a layin and Joshua Talton followed with a pair of free throws, it didn’t fully stem the tide.

Illinois shot 53.8 percent from the field and 62.5 percent from 3-point range in the second half. Meanwhile, Missouri shot just 20 percent from the field in the second half.

“We went cold, they went hot,” said Berhorst, who had 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. “That’s basketball.”

It’s a game of runs, too.

“The scoring runs can get going in a hurry,” said Brock Edris, the Monroe City coach who led the Missouri squad. “None of them went in our favor.”

Keeping Joshua Talton in check helped Illinois limit those runs. The Class 3 Co-Player of the Year in Missouri finished with 18 points and four rebounds to be named the Missouri team’s MVP, but he went 4 of 13 from the field overall and 2 of 7 in the second half.

“Obviously, Joshua wanted the ball in his hands a lot,” Jeremiah Talton said. “So we took him away and tried to make everyone else beat us.”

Robertson was the only other Missouri player in double figures, finishing with 10 points.

“It felt like there was a lid on top of the rim for us,” Edris said.

The basket seemed to grow exponentially for Illinois.

“Everybody made shots,” Robbins said. “Everybody knew they could.”