COLLINSVILLE — More often than not, one big play or run can decide the outcome of a basketball game, especially if it’s an important run.
That’s exactly what happened on Tuesday night at Collinsville’s Vergil Fletcher Gym, as Edwardsville used a 15-3 run in 4:27 to break open a tied game and go on to a 56-43 win over Belleville West in the IHSA Class 4A boys basketball Ottawa sectional semifinal.
The Tigers advance to the final Friday night at Ottawa against Danville, a 61-45 winner over Moline in the other semifinal. The Tigers improved to 29-1 and now have captured 25 straight wins. The last defeat came to Belleville West back in December. Belleville West finishes with a 20-9 mark.
Tigers’ coach Mike Waldo said his team’s defensive effort was the overall key to the win Tuesday night.
“I thought what helped us was when we had trouble scoring, that we were able to defend them well.” Waldo said. “And they had trouble scoring as well. I thought we had a lot of guys do well on defense.”
Mark Smith has been a catalyst for the Tigers all season and it was no different on Tuesday night. He ended up scoring 31 points, 11 in the final period.
Smith’s efforts drew nothing but praise from his coach.
“I thought Mark did a good job with the ball,” Waldo said. “I thought he made some good decisions with the ball, and I thought we did a good job of giving him good spots with the ball; I thought our guys did a good job of passing the ball to him.”
Waldo was quick to praise the Maroons, a very athletic team who gave the Tigers their only loss of the season.
“I thought Belleville West played an excellent game,” Waldo said, “and I thought they really did a good job of defending us. They’re well-coached, they’re well-prepared, and they’ve got athletes. And that’s always hard to play against. So I think you’ve got to give them a lot of credit. It was really hard to score against them.”
It was West who jumped out to the early advantage by scoring the game’s first four points and six of the first eight. Tiger senior guard Smith connected on a three-point play and A.J. Epenesa converted a pair of free throws to give Edwardsville its first lead at7-6. After an Oliver Stephen three gave the Tigers the lead back at 11-8, Smith threw down two ferocious dunks near the end of the period to give Edwardsville a 15-8 lead at quarter time.
The Tiers were able to extend their lead to 17-10 at the start of the second quarter, but an undaunted Maroon side kept coming. A basket by Tyler Dancy and a three from William Lanxon pulled West to within two. The two teams kept in close quarters for much of the rest of the period, the lead seesawing between two and four. Epenesa did hit a close in jumper at the end of the period, but it was waved off by the official, leaving the score 23-21 in favor of the Tigers. Smith had 15 in the half, a harbinger of things to come.
The Maroons opened the second half with the first four points to take a 25-23 lead, but Smith scored the next five points, a three-point play and two free throws, to give the lead back to the Tigers. West came right back with a fadeway jumper from Eric Liddell and free throws from both Keith Randolph and Elijah Powell to give the Maroons a 30-28 lead. But right at the end of the quarter, Epenesa took a perfect pass from the far side of the court and scored at the siren to tie the game at 30-30, setting the stage for an exciting final term.
The Tigers went on the 15-3 run to break open the game, starting with a Caleb Strohmeier drive to the basket, his only points of the game. Smith then exploded for eight of the game’s next ten points, scoring on another three-point play, a short jumper in the lane and a three to extend the Tiger edge to 40-32. Stephen later hit a pair of three balls, sandwiched around a driving lay-up by Epenesa to extend the lead to 45-33, forcing West to call time out with 3:33 remaining. Epenesa then dunked off an alley-oop pass that send the Edwardsville fans wild with delight, all but sealing the game for the Tigers. Edwardsville finished with a 11-10 run which included a Smith dunk for the final 56-43 score.
Not to be overlooked was a great defensive effort from the Tigers, who held Dancy and Liddell, the Maroons’ two best players, to 15 and 10 points respectively.
“You know, keeping a guy from getting the ball’s not (an) easy job,” Waldo said. “It is not an easy job. And I thought that Strohmeier and (Nathan) Kolesa did a great job of that.
Epenesa had 11 points in the game for the Tigers, while Stephen had eight points. Strohmeier had four points and Marinko closed out the Tigers’ scoring with two points.
The Tigers now face a Danville team in the sectional final and the chance to move on to the Elite Eight next Tuesday in the Supersectional at Illinois State’s Redbird Arena. They may be a unknown quanity, but Waldo will have the Tigers prepared to play against the Vikings, and is looking forward to continuing the team’s journey.
“You’re excited about anything you get to do this time of year,” Waldo said, “because you get to still play. We’re looking forward to getting to play Friday night, and we’ll try to get ready as best as we can.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
