GRANITE CITY — The intensity, hustle and effort was there the entire 32 minutes for both Edwardsville and Alton in their IHSA Class 4A boys’ basketball regional final Friday night.
And when everything was said and done, A.J. Epenesa had scored a game-high 26 points while teammate Mark Smith and Caleb Strohmeier added 12 in helping the Tigers defeat the Redbirds 66-53 at Granite City’s Memorial Gymnasium. The Tigers advance to the Ottawa Sectional, where they’ll play Belleville West, a 67-60 winner over East St. Louis to take the Belleville East Regional. That game will be held Tuesday night at Collinsville’s Vergil Fletcher Gym.
While the efforts of two of the Tigers’ top players are the first things that most fans noticed after the game, there’s other players who made a contribution to Edwardsville’s success on the night.
“I thought that Jack (Marinko) did good defensively, and I thought he did a good job handling the ball, he and Oliver (Stephen) both,” said Tigers coach Mike Waldo. “Jack’s done good for us all year. Very good.”
And even when Smith, a six-foot, four-inch senior guard, got into some foul trouble, the Tigers were able to adjust and keep rolling.
“First of all, Mark does an excellent job,” Waldo said. “Mark’s had a great year, he did some good things for us tonight. I thought that when Mark went out of the game, I thought that Oliver and Jack did a real good job of handling the ball. And I thought that (Nathan) Kolesa gave us some really good minutes tonight. Really good. He played well. He handled the ball well, guarded well. I thought he did well.”
But it was Epenesa who made the biggest impact on the game. He scored the Tigers’ first seven points, and made plays on both end of the floor.
“He’s a quality basketball player,” said Alton coach Eric Smith of Epenesa. “They’ve got a handful of those kids on their team. So, you’re gonna have to kind of make a decision on what you want to do, and hope that it works out. Obviously, he was pretty good tonight. So, we’re going to have to kind of sit back and watch them keep playing. And the sad part of it is that our kids don’t get an opportunity to keep going. But we competed, and that’s all I can ask.”
That the Redbirds didn’t quit and kept battling is a tribute to the Alton players themselves. Smith felt that was a trademark of his team all season.
“No, they don’t,” Smith said. “I mean, that’s the one thing that our kids are hopefully have been known for, is that they’re gonna compete and they’re gonna play hard. And I don’t think they disappointed in that tonight.
The opening eight minutes were a bit of a see-saw affair, where both teams traded effective blows. Epenesa scored Edwardsville’s first seven points, while Donovan Clay kept the Redbirds close, and a long three from Kevin Caldwell and a jumper from Maurice Edwards gave Alton a pair of leads. Late in the term, another three ball from Donovan Clay gave the Redbirds a 16-13, lead. Edwardsville then reeled off the quarter’s final nine points, climaxed at the siren when Marinko connected on a three from behind the midcourt line to give the Tigers a 22-16 lead at quarter time.
The Redbirds weren’t rattled, and immediately halved the edge on a Damion Reid trey to start the second term. Reid cut the lead to three again later on with another trey, and later on, Alton drew level when Ty’ohn Trimble hit a three ball to make it 27-27. Epenesa immediately gave Edwardsville the lead back on a dunk, then took advantage of some Alton turnovers, getting a three from Strohmeier and two free throws from Smith to make it 34-27, where it stood at halftime.
The teams opened the second half by trading baskets, and every time it looked like the Tigers were ready to put things away, Alton kept battling back. Twice, the Redbirds were able to cut the margin to seven, thanks to the efforts of Trimble and Dereaun Clay. The Tigers were able to bounce back throughout, and took an 11-point edge at 47-36.
The Tigers were able to pull away in the final period, but there was no quit in the Alton side. Dereaun Clay started the quarter with a basket from inside to cut the lead to nine, but Edwardsville outscored Alton 8-4 to take a 55-40 lead near the halfway point of the term. Donovan Clay hit back-to-back threes to cut the lead back to nine late with 2:18 remaining in regulation. The Tigers, however, finished the game with a 13-7 run to wind up winners on the night 66-53.
Alton was led by Donovan Clay with 12 points, followed by Damion Reid with 11, Trimble with 10, and Caldwell and Dereaun Clay with eight apiece.
Marinko had nine points for the Tigers and Stephen added seven points to round out their scoring.
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