Bombers’ defense quiets Golden Eagles’ shooters, leads to spot in Macomb-Western semifinals

MACOMB, Ill. — Locked in.

Those were the first words Macomb boys basketball coach Jeremy Anderson used to describe his team’s defensive performance against Mercer County in Friday’s Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament quarterfinal game at Western Hall.

“I thought the effort defensively was outstanding,” Anderson said.

After Mercer County shot 72.7 percent from the field in their first round win over Pittsfield, the Bombers held the Golden Eagles to nine points and 30.8 percent shooting in the first half to open up a 25-9 halftime lead before cruising to a 58-30 victory.

“They really did a nice job this morning of thinking about the scout, thinking about their personnel and just going out and doing their responsibilities,” Anderson said.

Two of those personnel — Carson Boelens and Brady McPeek — came into Friday averaging a combined 33 points per game, and Boelens had 23 points against Pittsfield. The Bombers held Boelens to just two points and McPeek to nine. The duo shot a combined 5 for 17 from the field and 1 for 7 from 3-point range.

“We guarded really well,” said Bombers junior guard Drew Watson, whose primary defensive assignment was McPeek. “We knew that if we took away (Boelens) and (McPeek), we would be alright defensively. Braden (Holthaus) played really hard on defense and shut (Boelens) down. He was very physical with him.”

The Golden Eagles made just three of their 13 attempts from beyond the arc. Anderson commended his guards for taking away open perimeter shots.

“A lot of the way guys are getting threes nowadays is the drive and pitch,” Anderson said. “Well, if you’re able to stay in front of the guy that’s the driver, maybe the pitch guy doesn’t get as easy of a look. I thought Braden, Drew and Malachi (Conley) especially did a great job of staying in front of the driver so they didn’t get those drive and pitch threes.”

The Bombers outrebounded Mercer County 32-21 and limited the Golden Eagles to just six offensive rebounds.

“The plan was let’s force them to take contested jump shots and only give them one, and I thought we did a nice job of that tonight,” Anderson said.

Macomb never trailed, and once Watson gave the Bombers a 17-6 lead on a reverse layup with 5:45 left in the second quarter, their lead only grew.

After going 1 for 6 from 3-point range in Macomb’s win over Canton (Ill.) on Thursday, Watson knocked down four of his nine triples on Friday and scored a game-high 17 points.

“The shot felt really nice tonight,” Watson said. “The ball was spinning off the fingers really well. I went and shot this morning and shot again this afternoon to get a lot of shots up. I wanted to work on my jump shot because it wasn’t feeling right yesterday. It really gave me a lot of confidence shooting that much today.”

Anderson challenged Watson, and Watson answered the bell.

“He’s a gamer,” Anderson said. “He told me he’s the sniper. I told him, ‘Well, you better start sniping then.’ He does a great job.”

Conley made two of his three 3-pointers and had 10 points, but his second and final assist provided one the flashiest plays of the night. With the Bombers leading 49-22 and 4:45 left in the fourth quarter, Conley used a behind-the-back dribble to get past Holden Demuth and to the free throw line and whipped a one-hand, no-look pass to Nolan Hoge at the left block. Hoge converted the layup and converted the three-point play after Demuth fouled him on the layup.

“I was not ready for that at all,” Hoge said of Conley’s pass. “I was expecting him to shoot it. He passed me the ball and I was already on the side so I kind of just threw it up there and it fell.”

Conley’s instincts just took over.

“I saw the open man so I just had to give it to him,” Conley said.

Macomb (10-2) advances to the semifinals to face West Hancock, the No. 1 seed in the tournament and the No. 8 team in Class 2A.

“They have a lot of firepower, and defensively, they cause you all sorts of trouble,” Anderson said of West Hancock. “We’re really fortunate because we never have to question our kids’ effort. Now they’re going to be really excited because they’re in the semifinals, so now we can just go out and play.”