BELLEVILLE • Something about crosstown rival Althoff brings out the best in the Belleville East basketball team.
Since a 72-65 win over the Crusaders on Jan. 20 in the second round of the East Winter Classic, the Lancers had lost three in a row. On Tuesday, East had another home game against Althoff, and the result this time was a 76-45 non-conference victory.
"We shot the ball extremely well," Lancers coach Ray Hoffman said. "Our schedule is tough and we're right there with everybody, but we've got to keep getting better. We think we've done that in the last couple weeks."
Illinois recruit Malcolm Hill, who was held to four points in a 45-41 overtime loss to Edwardsville on Friday, had a game-high 29 points as the Lancers improved to 12-9.
"There was a little frustration, but at the end of the day, we weren't playing hard and we were getting outhustled and that's what we focused on today," Hill said.
Althoff, playing for the first time in 10 days, lost its seventh consecutive game and dropped to 8-11.
"We weren't able to capitalize early when we had an opportunity and it got away from us," Crusaders coach Greg Leib said. "I think the kids are pressing a little bit, but you can't eat the elephant in one bite. You've got to do it one piece at a time."
A 3-pointer by Kevin Renner gave Althoff its only lead, 12-11, with 2:39 remaining in the first quarter, but a trey by Darreon Reddick put East ahead 27-17 with 3:42 to play in the second quarter.
The Lancers closed out the quarter with a 10-0 run, taking a 39-22 halftime lead on a jumper by Hill.
"East has a way of making the bottom fall out," Leib said. "They went on that run in the second quarter and built on it after coming out of the locker room. I didn't make adjustments as a coach and that's something we've got to get better at."
East extended its lead to 46-22 early in the third quarter on a 3-pointer by Hill. Althoff never got closer than 20 points the rest of the way.
"We played more aggressive on defense and offense," Hill said. "We pushed the ball harder to the paint and got some offensive rebounds and that really helped us."
Senior Tim Goodwin added 21 points for East, which led 64-34 after three quarters.
"Everybody knows Timmy and Malcolm are a good combination and if we get them playing together, they can do some special things offensively," Hoffman said. "If we can do that, we'll be OK, but we've got to keep working on defense."
Eldin Salmond led Althoff with 13 points.
