Basketball Recap: SIUE East St. Louis Charter Takes a Loss

After a string of four wins, SIUE East St. Louis Charter's good fortune finally ran out on Wednesday. They were outmatched by the Metro-East Lutheran Knights and fell 74-46. While losing is never fun, the Cougars can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Illinois basketball rankings (they are ranked 592nd, while the Knights are ranked 222nd).

SIUE East St. Louis Charter lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Jaylen Wiley, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and ten rebounds. SIUE East St. Louis Charter is 4-1 when Wiley posts ten or more boards, but 2-9 otherwise. Kejuan Rives was another key player, putting up 12 points and six rebounds.

Even though they lost, SIUE East St. Louis Charter smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 11 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive boards in four consecutive contests.

Junior Brown was his usual excellent self, almost dropping a double-double on 20 points and nine boards for Metro-East Lutheran. The team also got some help courtesy of Ian Skelton, who went 5 for 6 en route to 10 points in addition to seven rebounds and six assists.

SIUE East St. Louis Charter's defeat dropped their record down to 6-10. As for Metro-East Lutheran, their victory bumped their record up to 12-9.

SIUE East St. Louis Charter has already played their next match (against Lovejoy), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Metro-East Lutheran will square off against Father McGivney Catholic at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Father McGivney Catholic is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 50.3 points per game this season.