ECC Spartans men’s basketball team continues their winning streak two games as they beat Prairie State on Thursday night at the Spartans Event Center.

The warm, dry air filled the Spartans Event Center as people showed up. There are a lot of cheers and screaming from the crowd while the Spartans bench are chanting every time the team plays defense. 

In the first half, the team got off to a good start as they played good offense but also tried to increase the gap of the lead. The Spartans ended the first half with a 12 point lead with a score of 52-38. 

First year student Rayden Madrigal gave his thoughts about the game so far. 

“I think it’s pretty good. Flowers scored almost 20 points in the first quarter.” 

Madrigal said that the team did a good job playing offense. 

“I think they were pretty good. They could have done better if they didn’t give up 30 points, like almost 40 points.” 

According to Madrigal, he predicted that the team will win with a score of 88-62.   

During the second half of the game, the team maintained the momentum that they had in the first half. Guard Davee Flowers made the crowd happy as he made a deep three point shot and a skill move to the opponent.

 As the game came closer to the end, the Spartans started to slow down their momentum but they managed to take the lead and won the game with a score of 99-89. 

Head Coach Kent Payne gave his thoughts on the team’s performance in this game. 

He explained how the team got a lot of offensive rebounds. 

“We emphasize that a lot and tonight, they did that. They were relentless with it, which is one of the things that we really worked on and talked about in practice.” 

Payne mentioned that the team did a good job making a lot of three pointers in this game. 

“Yeah, we shot well, tonight, we’re a little more consistent. We’re pretty excited about that.” 

According to Payne, he commented on his takeaways about this game. 

“The fact that we were really consistent. We played really good defense and executed really well on offense.” 

Guard Maddox Hollian explains how his season average points translate into this game. 

“I’m very happy with my average. I’m just glad I could contribute to the team, and do we need to win.” 

Hollian was shocked when he saw his teammate Davee Flowers make a skill move on the defender. 

“I was just shocked. It’s not every day you see that but I was not surprised, because Davey is an ankle snatcher” he said. 

According to Hollian, he mentioned that he would like to practice shooting with his right hand more. 

“I definitely want to work on my right hand, and then probably my ability to dribble the basketball better be more consistent.”. 

Guard Davee Flowers averaged 22.6 points per game this season and it translates into this game vs Prairie State. 

“I think it transferred over. I had 44 a couple days ago, definitely transferred into this game” he said. 

The Sophomore Guard mentioned that he’s almost reaching 1,069 points near the end of the season. 

“That would be a good milestone but I think Elgin High School is like 1,069 points so I’m almost there,” Flowers said. 

Flowers was happy that he made a long three point shot. 

“I tried not to show much emotion, but that was a crazy shot.” 

The Spartans next game will be against Carl Sandburg College on Saturday.