PEORIA — Manual rediscovered its offensive identity Tuesday night, just in time to avenge an early season loss to city rival Peoria High.
The Rams (5-10, 3-3) scored 22 points off 24 Peoria High turnovers in a 65-52 win at Peoria High.
“They’re buying in to what Manual basketball is all about,” said coach Willie Coleman. “It starts with defense, and they’re putting defense first and that defense turns into offense, and that’s how we turn it around as a team.”
Rolando ‘Pee Wee’ Brown and Quincy Broadway applied a lot of pressure to force a combined eight steals between them. It wasn’t a coincidence that they also led the team in scoring. Brown finished with a game-high 23 points and Broadway added 16.
“We’re a team and we stick together, some nights it’s going to be Pee Wee, some nights it’s going to be Quincy; it’s going to be different players night-in and night-out, and that’s Manual basketball,” said Coleman.
The last of 13 lead changes came with 29.7 seconds left in the third quarter on a Broadway trey. That was part of a decisive 10-point run over a 2-minute, 13-second stretch bleeding into the fourth quarter.
“It was very important to win this game because we lost the last time at home, and we knew we could come out with the win at their home,” Brown said after the Rams avenged a 70-57 home loss on Dec. 15.
Peoria High (8-11) was taken out of its element against an aggressive Manual defense, but Cortez Mosley was aggressive and led Peoria High with 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line. That included an eight-point run over a two-minute span in the third quarter to give the Lions a 34-32 lead.
“Sometimes he gets riled up and wanting to carry the team on his back, but he’s starting to get a better understanding if that he takes his time, utilizes his teammates and take what the defense gives him, he’s a lot more successful and I think he took advantage of that in the third quarter,” acting Peoria High head coach Daniel Ruffin said.
Chris Williams played with his middle and ring fingers on his right hand taped. Despite that, the guard had 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Lions head coach Dan Ruffin was out with an illness on Tuesday and his son took control on Tuesday. Former Bradley guard Daniel Ruffin is typically the junior varsity head coach.
“I thought the kids did a great job of giving me maximum effort,” the younger Ruffin said. “Obviously I wish the outcome would be a little different, but just having this opportunity to lead Peoria High as the head coach for one night was a dream come true.”
Aaron Ferguson can be reached at 686-3207 or aferguson@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Sports_Aaron.
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