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BELLEVILLE – Edwardsville’s boys basketballers rebounded from a Saturday night loss to Belleville West in fine fashion Tuesday, Jack Marinko leading the way with 22 points as the Tigers defeated Belleville East 54-38 Tuesday night at East’s gym to go to 3-1 overall on the year, 1-1 in the Southwestern Conference while the Lancers fell to 3-3 overall, 0-2 in the league.
“I thought our guys did a lot of good 
things tonight,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “I thought defensively, we did well and I thought our defensive rebounding was much improved and we’ve emphasized that; our guys worked really hard at it. Our rebounding was part of our success tonight.
“I just think the more you play, the better you’re going to get – I think our timing was better, our rebounding was better; I think we did a better job of blocking out and going after the ball.”
Edwardsville held a 10-9 lead at quarter time but started getting hot from the floor in the second period and built a lead. “I thought we did a good job in that (zone) defense and the guys communicated well,” Waldo said. “I thought Jaylon Tuggle had a real good game in that defense; I thought we rebounded well – that did help us.”
Caleb Strohmeier ended up with 10 points on the night but had to go to the bench with foul trouble at points in the game. “Caleb is a really good player at both ends of the floor,” Waldo said. “It’s not good when he’s out, but I thought A.J. Robertson came in and did a lot of good things for us – he’s been good for us; it’s a long season and you need a lot of players, so good for A.J. – I thought he played good.”
Edwardsville built its lead to 29-19 at the half and went on a run of three-pointers in the third period that helped salt away the game; Marinko hit three straight three-balls in a row at one point that put the lead at 44-23 at one point of the third. “When they started chasing us more and double-teaming us more, you’re going to give up some more open threes,” Waldo said. “We were able to make those; I think that helped us. I think we did a good job of passing the ball out of some double-teams and finding guys.
“I thought Jack played well; he did a good job of taking things when they were open and not passing; when they were pressuring us later, he did a good job of picking us up with some open threes.”
Tuggle assisted in the EHS cause with an eight-point night; the Lancers were led by Jordan Yates’ 13 points and Jaylen Lacey’s 10 points on the night.
Next up for the Tigers is a SWC game against Collinsville at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lucco-Jackson Gym, followed by 7:30 p.m. home game against Gateway STEM of St. Louis city Dec. 12.
