O’FALLON, Ill. — There were no style points for the O’Fallon High boys basketball team on Tuesday night.

But that was OK with the Panthers.

Rini Harris had 10 points and 12 rebounds for his first career double-double while Koby Wilmoth and Isaiah Camper scored 10 points apiece as the Panthers subdued Miller Career Academy 47-42 in a nonconference boys basketball game.

“Games like this, you have to fight from within,” said Harris, a 6-foot-3 junior. “We’ve got to go to the basket, we’ve got to go up strong and we’ve got to finish through contact.”

The victory was the Panthers’ sixth in their last seven games and improved their record to 16-5. The Phoenix, despite 20 points from senior Charles Nelson, slipped to 7-7.

Outside of Nelson, offense was a pursued but rarely realized objective. Neither team could rely on its outside shooting, which led to plenty of action in the lane.

“Everybody practices their shots, and when those shots that you practice aren’t falling, it gets in your head, becomes hard to finish,” Harris said. “You’ve got to play through it. If you’re not hitting shots, you’ve got to do something on the defensive end to help your team win. It’s difficult, but that should be our mentality from the start. Defense turns into offense.”

Miller Career Academy shot 38 percent from the field (18-for-48), with Nelson going 8-for-17. Senior Nehemiah Reedus backed up Nelson with nine points, all in the second half.

The teams were deadlocked at 11 after one quarter before O’Fallon took the lead for good at 16-15 in the second quarter on a free throw by senior Dwayne Chatman Jr. The Panthers’ lead swelled to 28-21 at halftime before a sluggish third quarter in which both teams scored just eight points apiece.

O’Fallon took a 39-29 lead early in the fourth quarter on Wilmoth’s three-point play and still maintained its 10-point lead with 30 seconds to play when Camper hit a free throw to make it 47-37. Nelson had a driving layup and a 3-pointer to make it a two-possession game, but time was not on the Phoenix’s side.

“We’re playing hard, but we’ve got to execute better,” Phoenix coach Brandon Wright said. “When we were driving to the basket, we were just trying to throw it at the rim and hoping and wishing for the best. You’ve got to drive with a purpose and play off two feet. It’s the little things we’ve still got to work on.

“We shot pretty bad today. We were rushing our shots. We’ve got to settle down a little bit. But that’s why we play big games in this environment. You learn from it. All of the missed layups and the shot selection really, at times, wasn’t that great. We can watch film and learn from it. Every possession, we should be taking a great shot.”

O’Fallon’s points, like Miller Career Academy’s, were hard-earned. The Panthers, however, proved more efficient as they shot 44 percent (20-for-45). They were just 4-for-10 from the free-throw line.

“We weren’t patient enough on offense to keep them spread out and then attack,” O’Fallon coach Brian Muniz said. “When we did, they were athletic and into us. They got us out of our offense. We’ve got to get more disciplined. It’s tough to be able to run our offense against defenses that are into us like that.”

Senior Tre’ Gilliam had a key basket in the fourth quarter for O’Fallon. It followed a 3-pointer by Nelson and put the Panthers ahead 43-37. Harris followed with a drive down the right side of the lane that produced a layup that made it 45-37 with 46 seconds left.

Camper, meanwhile, was a big lift for the Panthers in the first half as he had eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

“He’s kind of an instant-offense kind of guy,” Muniz said. “When he’s on, he does a great job, and he’s been doing a great job for us (lately).”

Harris is optimistic the Panthers’ best games are still to come.

“You can get a whole bunch of balance from this team,” Harris said. “You can get a breakout player, too, but it depends on the game. We’ve got some things to work on, but I feel like when we piece things together like we did against Belleville East and East Side, we can spark a run and go far in the playoffs.”