Murphysboro downs Perryville to win Chester Invite

<span>Nick Williams scored 24 points and Murphysboro responded to a 42-all tie with an 8-2 run to beat Perryville, 52-47, in the championship game of the Chester Invitational Freshman Boys Basketball Tournament on Saturday.</span>

<span>Perryville (14-3) tied the game at 42 on a 3-pointer with four minutes remaining, but a layup from Murphysboro's Gavin Topp gave the Red Devils a two-point lead and kickstarted the late-game surge.</span>

<span>"The key to the win was our point guard (Williams) got off to a great start," said Murphysboro coach Matt Decker. "He got in the paint and caused them a lot of problems, which switched (Perryville's) focus on to him, which made everybody else open a lot more on a lot of our back checks we set."</span>

<span>Williams had 14 of his points at halftime as Murphysboro held a 27-22 lead at the break. The Red Devils (16-5) began the second half on a 13-5 run to take their largest lead of the game, 40-27, with 2:12 left in the third quarter.</span>

<span>But Perryville wasn't done, battling back to tie the game.</span>

<span>"I told my boys I didn't question their effort," said Perryville coach Kurtis Davis. "It was there the whole time. I questioned the execution of the plays and the defense there at the end."</span>

<span>Logan Evans also chipped in 10 points for Murphysboro, which defeated Trico, 69-50, to reach the title game. Perryville defeated Chester, 56-27, in the tournament's other semifinal.</span>

<span>Chester then beat the Pioneers, 48-37, to claim third place and finish the season 8-12.</span>

<span>Decker was asked what his favorite part was of working with his team.</span>

<span>"My favorite part about these kids is they play hard in games," Decker said. "Not all the time in practice, I won't say that, but in games, they leave everything on the floor that they have.</span>

<span>"They put out extra effort in every game."</span>