O'FALLON, Ill. • Collinsville broke a 10-year losing streak Friday night when the visiting Kahoks survived a furious comeback by O'Fallon to defeat the Panthers 64-59.
Collinsville, No. 4 in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings and No. 6 in the Illinois Associated Press Class 4A state poll, improved to 20-3 overall and a conference-leading 8-1.
Jarius Wellmaker scored a season-high 20 points, Daryn Foster netted 14 and Devonta Crochrell added 13 for the Kahoks, who last won at O'Fallon 64-47 on Feb. 2, 2001.
The Panthers, No. 5 in the large-schools rankings and No. 9 in the Class 4A state poll, fell to 16-4, 5-4 as Michael Jackson poured in a game-high 23 points and Roy Bullock III contributed 20.
"I think we kind of relaxed and got overwhelmed because we thought the game was ours," Wellmaker said. "But they came back and fought for it. At halftime, coach (Darin Lee) told us they were going to make a run for it, but I didn't know they were going to make a right like that."
That run -- a 22-2 scoring blitz -- occurred after the Kahoks grabbed a 48-26 advantage, thanks to a Foster basket with 2 minutes 21 seconds to go in the third quarter.
Bullock started the surge with a basket with 1:59 remaining, and by the end of the quarter, Collinsville held a 48-32 lead. The onslaught continued as Bullock scored eight of his team's first 10 points of the fourth quarter -- including back-to-back 3-pointers -- to trim the deficit to 48-42.
Wellmaker stemmed the tide briefly with two free throws for a lead at the 5:46 mark, but consecutive 3s by Donovan Franklin and Bullock made it 50-48 with 4:55 left. The Kahoks went back in front after two free throws by Jason Kusnerick with 38.8 seconds to go.
O'Fallon trimmed it to 61-59 after a Bullock steal and an 18-footer from the right wing with 18 seconds left. Collinsville then made three of four foul shots at the end for the final score.
"We keep telling these guys to beat Collinsville, you've got to play four quarters," Panthers coach Rick Gibson said. "We played a great fourth quarter. But that second quarter did us in (when O'Fallon was outscored 13-5). I know we're never going to quit. They've got heart and they've got pride. We didn't put four quarters together."
