JUCO Hoops: Logan men score big win over Lake Land

Freshman guard Martavian Payne scored 29 points to lead four players in double figures as the John A. Logan College men's basketball team ran past Lake Land College of Mattoon Wednesday night, 104-93.

With the win, the Volunteers improve to 18-10 on the season, 10-5 in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference. The Lakers lead the conference at 11-4 and are now 22-7 overall. Each team has one regular-season game left to play before Region 24 tournament action gets under way next week at Rend Lake.

The Volunteers shot the ball extremely well from the field Wednesday, making 35-of-68 shots or 52 percent. They were a solid 7-of-16 from beyond the three-point arc (44 percent), and did a much better job from the free-throw line, converting 27-of-38 tosses for 71 percent.

In addition to Payne's 29 (8-of-12 field goals, including 4-of-5 triples, and 9-of-10 free throws), sophomore guard Darien Walker checked in with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 free tosses. Freshman guard Tre Green accounted for 21 points on 8-of-15 sniping from the field. Also reaching double digits was freshman post player Russell Woods, who flipped in 11 points and grabbed a team-high 13 rebounds.

Jordan Martin and DeVaughn Johnson tallied nine points each. A.J. Riley had two.

"This was a big game and big win for us," said Vols head coach Kyle Smithpeters. "I'm really happy they (Lakers) decided to play us man-to-man defensively. This is what happens (104 points) when people do. We score a lot of points. We were fun to watch tonight. We battled and didn't lose our cool."

Logan closes out the regular season Saturday night at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson.