COLLINSVILLE – Edwardsville fell behind McCluer North early in the second quarter of their opening-round game of the 33rd Prairie Farms-Collinsville Holiday Classic basketball tournament Tuesday afternoon at Fletcher Gym, but quickly turned things around to take a 34-23 lead at the half and never looked back as four Tigers scored in double figures in an 83-53 victory over the Stars.
Oliver Stephen led the way for the Tigers with a 29-point performance which included nine three-point shots – one short of the tournament single-game record.
Edwardsville (8-1) advanced into an 11:30 a.m. Thursday quarterfinal game against Lincoln, 52-43 winners over Urbana in the game that followed Edwardsville’s win; the winner of that game moves into a semifinal game at 6:30 p.m. Thursday with a berth in Friday night’s championship game at stake.
“They’ve got some athletes,” Waldo said of the Stars. “They’ve got size, they’ve got some athletes and they play good. I thought their defense was good, they did a lot of things that were hard to guard offensively. We had to play well to win, but I thought my guys did a lot of stuff well today.”
The Stars stayed close in the opening quarter, then took a small lead at the start of the second period. “They made some hard shots early,” Waldo said. “They had about three trips in a row where they missed and it came off long for us and we were able to get some transition going and get some baskets out of that; that helped us get ahead.”
Stephen caught fire in the second half en route to is 29-point performance, but that wasn’t the only thing that pleased Waldo. “Oliver does good,” Waldo said. “He shoots when he’s open, and if he’s not open, he passes. I thought Oliver did a good job defensively. I thought we passed the ball well today; we did a good job of seeing guys open.”
Mark Smith had 15 points for the Tigers, while A.J. Epenesa added 14 and Caleb Strohmeier 12. Patrick Evans led the Stars with 16 points, with Cameron Lockett adding 10 and Kyle O’Brien seven.
In earlier games Wednesday, Springfield Southeast opened the tournament with a 67-35 win over Oakville, Mo., while Decatur Eisenhower defeated Belleville East 58-51; in a later game, East St. Louis advanced to the quarterfinals with a 68-47 win over Riverview Gardens. Still to come on the opening day are games between Collinsville and Decatur MacArthur, Belleville Althoff against Hazelwood East and Granite City closes out the first day with a game against Quincy. Play resumes at 10 a.m. Thursday with games at both the main Fletcher Gym facility and the auxiliary gym.
