COLLINSVILLE – Edwardsville senior guard Jack Marinko lead the way with 27 points, while forward Caleb Strohmeier chipped in 21 as the Tigers bounced back from a loss earlier in the day to defeat East St. Louis 63-52 in a fifth-place semifinal Friday night at the 34th Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic tournament at Vergil Fletcher Gym.
The Tigers outscored the Flyers in the middle two periods 30-17 in advancing to Saturday afternoon’s fifth-place game against Quincy.
“I thought we did a good job defensively,” said Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo. “They’ve got some good players and good scorers, and I thought that Strohmeier, and Jaylon (Tuggle) and Lavontas (Hairston) did a good job of limiting their touches, and then I thought we had a lot of good help defense off the ball. So I thought our defense was good, and I thought we executed a lot of things good on offense, too.”
Edwardsville now has the opportunity to win three of four games in a tournament that features some very good teams, and Waldo and his club is looking forward to the challenge.
“Well, this is a tough tournament,” Waldo said. “We’ve played all good teams. East Side’s good, obviously, Decatur MacArthur’s real good, (Belleville) Althoff was a good team, and of course, the Quincy Blue Devils are always good. So it’ll be a hard tournament, but we’ll prepare and do the best we can tomorrow.”
The first quarter saw the Flyers jump out to the early advantage, scoring the game’s first five points before Malik Robinson hit a three from the side to open the scoring for the Tigers. It settled into a bit of a see-saw affair which ended in a 13-13 tie. Edwardsville started to take control in the second, taking the lead for the first time on Tuggle’s three from the side to take a 16-13 lead. After Strohmeier made it 18-13, the Flyers got baskets from Imunique Williams and Joe Reece to cut it to 18-17. The Tigers then scored the quarter’s final nine points, led by a Marinko basket, a three-point play from Strohmeier, another Strohmeier basket and free throws from Marinko to take a 27-17 halftime lead.
The Tigers extended their advantage in the third quarter by going on a 9-2 run in the first 3:53, led by Marinko and Robinson. East Side called time out, and then came out with a run of their own, outscoring the Tigers 11-4 as Shamon Jefferson, Jashawn Anderson, Traeveion Jones and Reece helped the Flyers rally. The quarter ended with the Tigers on top 43-30.
In the final quarter, the Flyers started out well, coming to within seven on a three-point play by James Collins, but the Tigers answered with Marinko free throws and a three-point play of his own. Later on, East Side came to within six at 58-52, but free throws from Strohmeier and Robinson helped carry the day for Edwardsville, as the Tigers took the 63-52 decision.
In addition to Marinko and Strohmeier’s points, Robinson scored eight, Tuggle five and R.J. Wilson scored two for the Tigers. But what leads to the points themselves is just as important.
“Well, I thought that tonight, we did a lot of good things offensively,” Waldo said. “I thought Malik had a really good game with the ball. I thought he made a lot of good decisions with the ball. And I thought that all of our guys executed well on offense. Offensive execution’s not always the guy that made the basket; there’s a lot of things leading up to that, so I thought our guys did a good job with that.”
The Tigers meet up with Quincy at 1:30 pm Saturday afternoon in the fifth-place game, then start the 2018 portion of their schedule on the road at O’Fallon on January 5 and meeting Kansas City Rockhurst on January 6 at the Highland Shootout. Waldo and the Tigers will be ready for the upcoming schedule.
“Well, you know, every game’s different,” Waldo said. “When you play a good schedule, you’ve just got to keep prepared for each game, and just try to be ready for each game. I think the culmination of that each day helps you get better. And we’ve got a tough schedule, a hard way to go, we’ll just have to keep working and improve.”
