COLLINSVILLE – Edwardsville’s boys basketball team took on a Decatur MacArthur team that Tiger coach Mike Waldo said was “good” in the quarterfinals of the Collinsville-Prairie Farms Holiday Basketball Challenge Friday afternoon at Collinsville’s Virgil Fletcher Gym.
“They’re good,” Waldo said of the Generals. “They’ve got a lot of long, rangy, athletic guys; they’re well-coached, they do a really good job at both ends of the floor offensively and defensively, and that’s just a really, really good team,”
The Generals used their athleticism to full advantage against the Tigers as MacArthur defeated EHS 64-55 to send the Tigers to the fifth-place semifinals, where they would meet East St. Louis later Friday night (see related story) after the host Kahoks got a pair of free throws after the final buzzer to take the win in the game preceding Edwardsville’s.
The Tigers fell to 8-2 on the year following the loss; the Generals improved to 5-4 on the year.
“We had some shots, but there were some long guys flying at us,” Waldo said, “and I think that’s just a little different game. I thought my guys battled good; I thought we actually executed a lot of things well. It was just hard to get the ball in around the basket because of their length and their fundamentals.
“Defensively, they were good in rotating it.”
The Tigers had trouble hitting from behind the three-point arc – they were 1-for-22 from beyond the arc – but Waldo felt the General defense had something to do with that. “I’m sure they had something to do with that,” Waldo said. “We weren’t open for very long and I think you just have to credit their defense for that.
“I thought my guys battled good and tried to win the game, so I feel good about the things we did.”
The Generals held a 13-10 lead on the Tigers at quarter time, but expanded the lead to 28-17 at the half, using their athleticism to keep the Tigers at bay. Edwardsville stayed close, cutting the General lead by single digits but couldn’t get closer. MacArthur led 42-28 at three-quarter time and went on to run out winners on the day.
Jack Marinko led the Tigers with 26 points on the day with Caleb Strohmeier adding 10 and R.J. Wilson six. MacArthur was led by 15 points each from Armon and Amir Brummett and 10 from Travwye Gaines.
The Tigers will take on Quincy in the fifth-place game at 1:30 p.m. today at Fletcher Gym.
