Photo by Darian Hays
Sullivan Redskins Ricky Yang and Queintan Britton fight for a rebound during the home game against Neoga Dec. 9.

•December 14, 2016•

By Matt Kracht
NP Sports

Sullivan men’s basketball took losses against Neoga 61-57 Friday and Heritage Villa Grove 70-45 Saturday.

Now 0-5 on the season the Redskin defense struggled with outside shooters in both contests. Head coach Chester Reeder noted that teams are too relaxed against the Redskins right now. “We let them be comfortable. Anytime, I don’t care how good or bad of a shooter you are, if you are comfortable, they go in. We never put them under duress.”

Sullivan fell behind 6-0 early against Neoga in a scoreless first four minutes of the contest. Bryce Farris ended the drought and poured six of the first seven Redskin points.

Sullivan trailed 15-7 at the end of the first quarter, but Farris’s strong play continued in the second quarter with two baskets in under two minutes. The scores kept Sullivan within six points at 17-11. Farris would finish with a team high 18 points.

Brett Tuttle canned a deep three pointer to make it a three point contest at 17-14 with 5:40 left in the first half. After another Farris score, Neoga got the last five points of the half to lead 22-16 at the break. A back and forth start to the second half saw Sullivan get within four points of Neoga’s lead at the two minute mark 34-30, thanks to consecutive baskets by Farris, Sowers, and Jacob White.

White, who finished with six points off the bench, gave the Redskins much needed energy and was complimented by Coach Reeder after the game. “Jacob had a pretty solid game tonight. Still some things we have to fix defensively with him. But it was probably his best game.”      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.