Basketball Recap: Ishaia Brown's Big Game Can't Quite Lead East St. Louis over Urbana

East St. Louis was the 71-30 winner over Urbana when they last played one another back in December of 2023, but their luck changed this time around. The East St. Louis Flyers fell just short of the Urbana Tigers by a score of 54-52 on Saturday.

Several Flyers players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Ishaia Brown, who dropped a double-double on 13 points and 11 boards. That's the most points Brown has posted since back in November of 2024. Alex Johnson was another key player, going 6 for 11 on his way to 14 points along with six steals and five rebounds.

East St. Louis' loss was their fifth straight on the road, which dropped their record down to 9-13. Those losses can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 54.4 points per game. As for Urbana, the victory was the fourth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 7-7.

East St. Louis will be playing at home against Gateway Christian at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. East St. Louis is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 53.6 points per game this season. Urbana has already played their next matchup (against MacArthur), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.