GLEN CARBON - Thijson Heard led the way for Metro-East Lutheran with 16 points, while both Junior Brown and Lanydon Jefferson both added on 11 points each as the Knights won over Father McGivney Catholic 53-44 Monday night in the IHSA Class 1A boys basketball Madison regional second quarterfinal at the McGivney gym.
The Knights played a very good game to advance to the semifinals on Wednesday against Greenfield Northwestern, who defeated Dupo in the first quarterfinal 51-19.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
"We're OK," said Metro-East head coach Anthony Smith. "We've been battled-tested all year, so tonight, we tried to put the little things together, we tried to play disciplined defense, move the ball offensively. We did OK, we're still progressing, and we're playing tough. We'll have another tough game on Wednesday, and we'll have another good game if we stay disciplined." 
Smith gave a shout-out to Brown, but overall, he felt the Knights played a very good team game in going on to the win.
"Junior Brown played a great floor game," Smith said. "As a team, we played good. We had a few hiccups, but we got it together, and gave ourselves a chance."
McGivney head coach Cory Clauser said his team did not shoot well in the contest.
"Two for 18 from three-point range is uncharacteristic for us and not good enough to win games like this," he said. "We had our chances. Ideally, we play zone at our pace but they were up three in the second half and they were content to hold it and run the clock so we had to get out and guard them."
The Knights led all the way through, holding quarter leads of 7-6, 18-15, and 32-28 after the first three periods, outscoring the Griffins 21-16 in the fourth to clinch the game and advance.
To go along with Heard, Brown and Jefferson's scores, Metro-East saw Drew Suhre score eight points, and O'Brien Brown hit for seven points.
Nolan Keller led McGivney with 22 points, while Chase Jansen scored nine points, Drew Kleinheider had six points, Noah Garner hit for five points, and Issac Wendler scored two points.
The Knights are now 7-19, and move on to the semifinals on Wednesday at the Madison gym to play Northwestern, who are now 20-12, in the first game at 6 p.m. The winner plays the second semifinal winner, either the host Trojans, who eliminated Maryville Christian 63-50, or SIUE Charter, who won over Brooklyn Lovejoy 68-55, in the final on Friday night, with the tip-off set for 7 p.m.
The Griffins end their season at 12-20.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
More like this:
