LINCOLN — Danville boys basketball coach Durrell Robinson knew there would be some growing pains with four new players in the program this season.
Too many turnovers and too many missed layups for the Vikings resulted in a 70-63 loss to Champaign Centennial Tuesday night in the Lincoln/Eaton Thanksgiving Tournament.
“It was decent for a first game, but we have to get used to playing with each other,’’ said Danville junior guard Ja’Vaughn Robinson, who scored a game-high 24 points. “This was our first game together. If we could have limited the turnovers and got a few more rebounds, we could have gotten the win.’’
Centennial improved to 2-0 with the victory.
“Honestly, they had an advantage of playing last night, while this was our first game,’’ said Danville coach Durrell Robinson. “But, we still had opportunities. We just missed too many open shots, too many layups and we had too many turnovers.’’
And Robinson says that not all turnovers are the same.
“Those are things we have live with, I have to live with turning the ball over because we want to play at a faster pace,’’ he said. “But we don’t want have unforced turnovers. We want them to happen in the flow of the game.
“We basically have a brand new team. They are getting used to each other.’’
According to Robinson, the unforced turnovers are the ball-handling mistakes like traveling and carrying the basketball.
“If we can limit those turnovers, we can definitely get more wins,’’ Ja’Vaughn Robinson said.
The Vikings (0-1) only held the lead once (4-2) in the early stages of the contest, before a 9-2 run in the final 2 minutes of the first quarter gave the Chargers a 15-8 lead.
Centennial would maintain that lead throughout the contest, leading by as much as 11 (41-30) early in the second half.
Danville got as close at 58-55 with 4 minutes, 58 seconds left on a basket by senior Devan Larkin, but Centennial responded with an 8-0 run to seal its victory.
“I was really pleased with the effort, especially the defensive effort,’’ Durrell Robinson said. “We had some golden looks in those final minutes that we just didn’t capitalize on.
“We are going to have to pride ourselves on that defensive effort. As long as we keep sticking our heads in there on the defensive end, we are going to have our chances to win games.’’
The Vikings had four players in double figures. Robinson with the game-high 24, followed by Larkin with 14, junior transfers C.L. Dye and Jerry Reed III had 11 and 10 respectively.
Demariea Willis had a team-high 17 for Centennial, while Kayden Peat scored 14 and Todd Makabu chipped in with 12.
Belleville West 82 Danville 66
LINCOLN — Senior Devan Larkin and junior Ja’Vaugh Robinson combined for 48 points Wednesday night but it wasn’t enough as the Belleville West Maroons defeated the Danville Vikings 82-66 at the Lincoln/Eaton Thanksgiving Tournament.
The Vikings, who drop to 0-2 on the season, were outscored 23-10 in fourth quarter by the Maroons, who improve to 2-0 in the tournament.
Larkin scored 16 of his game-high 25 points in the second half, while Robinson had 18 first-half points on his way to 23 in the contest for Danville.
Belleville West countered with a balanced attack with five players in double figures, leading the way for the Maroons was Myles Liddell with 20.
Danville 65 Mahomet-Seymour 60
LINCOLN — Four players scored in double figures as the Vikings picked up their first win of the season defeating the Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs 65-60 Friday afternoon in the Lincoln/Eaton Thanksgiving Tournament.
Danville will play xxx or xxx in the fifth-place game at 4:30 p.m. today.
Senior guard Devan Larkins led the scoring for the Vikings with 15 points, while juniors C.L. Dye and Ja’Vaugnh Robinson each chipped in with 13 and junior Jerry Reed III had 10.