Central Lee knocks off New London

DONNELLSON — Central Lee’s boys basketball team is winning games with its defense.
For his offense, coach Jonny Swanson said, it’s felt “like there’s a lid on the basket.”
The Hawks had their highest scoring output of the season in Tuesday’s 58-31 win over New London.
Is the lid off?
“A little bit,” Swanson said. “A little bit.”
Still, Swanson felt the Hawks left some points behind, especially in the first half.
“I don’t know how many layups we missed in the first quarter — really, for the game,” he said. “I think we could have had 15 to 20 more points with some of the looks that we missed.”
The Hawks (3-1 overall, 3-1 SEISC South Division) did have a couple of impressive runs that wiped away the Tigers (0-5, 0-4). Central Lee closed the first half with a 14-2 run that led to a 28-12 halftime lead, then the Hawks opened the second half with a 15-2 run.

“We talk often about how we pride ourselves on defense and rebounding, and every single possession we are trying to get a stop,” Swanson said. “We play super hard defense, play for each other, communicate all those things, and when we do those things, when we play off each other, that's when we get a lot of success. And we're switching and doing all sorts of things. We're flying around the floor, and it’s good to see that.”
Owen Swan led the Hawks with 14 points. Carson Morrison had 12 points. Kaden Swan had 10.
“I thought we shot the ball from three better than we had the first few games, which was kind of nice,” Swanson said. “Owen got going there — he had kind of been in a little bit of a slump to start the season. Kaden had a couple of 3-pointers. So it was nice to see that we shot the ball well. If we can just put everything together, you know, that'd be pretty nice.”
Central Lee led by as much as 30 points on three occasions in the fourth quarter.
Brigham Porter led New London with 12 points. Israel Lemley had 11.
It’s a three-game week for the Hawks heading into the Christmas break. They play Clopton (Mo.) in the Rumble on the River at John Wood Community College in Quincy, Ill., on Thursday, then play host to South Division rival West Burlington on Friday.
“It switches up the routine a little bit,” Swanson said of Thursday’s game. “That's kind of nice. We get to go down to Quincy and play on a gym floor that we never get to play on. It's a college floor which is kind of nice and it’s cool for the guys. We get to play a team that we will probably never play again, which is also kind of cool. We get to see a little bit of a different style of basketball. It just gets us out of a routine a little bit. And it's fun, it's fun to do those sorts of things.
“It’s a huge week for us. We could head into the break with a lot of momentum. We’ve got Thursday’s game, and that Friday game is a big one, it’s one we really need to get. So we have to be locked in for these last two games.”