EAST ST. LOUIS – The Edwardsville Tigers had a chance to clinch at least a share of the Southwestern Conference title Friday night when they hit the road at East St. Louis.
They needed to beat the Flyers and Alton needed to lose to Belleville West. The Redbirds won that game 71-52, keeping their conference title hopes alive.
Edwardsville beat the Flyers 70-51 to improve to 25-2 on the season and 9-1 in the SWC. After Alton’s win over West, they are 22-6 on the season and 9-2 in the conference.
Alton has one more conference game remaining on the road at Collinsville on Friday, Feb. 21. The Tigers have two games remaining, both at home against Collinsville and Belleville West.
“We put ourselves in a good spot,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said regarding winning the conference. “We have two chances, two home games. I was just telling the guys that we control our destiny which is a good spot to be in. We don’t need any favors from anyone else. If we win, we win, and we’ll have something to celebrate.”
Alton would however need a favor. Alton needs the Tigers to lose one of their final two games to share the conference title. If for some reason Edwardsville lost both remaining games and Alton beats Collinsville, the Redbirds would out right win the title.
It’s going to come down to the final day of the regular season on Feb. 21 when the Tigers host Belleville West and Alton travels to Collinsville.
But the Tigers aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves. They knew that East Side was going to be a tough task.
“This is a tough place to play,” Battas said. “The league is so competitive. I think any night anybody can beat anybody. Road games are really challenging, especially Friday night and Senior Night. So, that’s why I think it’s one of the best games we’ve played because of those situations – on the road, against a good team, Senior Night – and our guys were able to play at a high level.”
Before the game, the Flyers did recognize their senior cheerleaders and five senior basketball players – Jordyn Ayers-Burris, Arlandis Brown, Isahia Brown, Jonathan Hale, and Montreal Stacker.
A large crowd showed up to watch the Flyers jump out to a 4-0 lead after back-to-back baskets from Arlandis Brown and Isahia Brown. But the Tigers came back to lead 7-5 after the first quarter.
The Flyers made a single free throw to open up the second before Bryce Pryor splashed a three. Arlandis Brown scored followed by a three from Devrice Johnson to take the lead momentarily at 11-10.
Pryor drilled another three to go back ahead 13-11and from there, the Tigers never trailed again. They led 23-19 at halftime.
“Yeah. I just thought our team played one of our best games of the season,” Battas said. “Miccah [Butler] and Iose [Epenesa] battled foul trouble in the first half. I thought Devyon [Hill-Lomax], Tucker [Lindstedt], and Brandon [Hoffmann] gave us some nice minutes. To still have the lead at halftime missing two of our key players is a testament to them.”
Edwardsville scored the first five points of the second half before a 9-2 run from the Flyers thanks to three straight threes to cut the deficit to 30-28.
But every time East Side thought it was gaining some momentum, the Tigers had an answer. Epenesa scored in the post before a three from Butler to increase the lead back to 35-28.
The Tigers found themselves in foul trouble again, with East Side in the shooting bonus with 2:05 remaining in the third.
Stacker made two free throws to make it 37-35 Tigers before Edwardsville pulled away again thanks to back-to-back threes from Butler to make it 43-35.
The Tigers led 46-40 after three quarters.
“In the third quarter I really think we started to take advantage of Iose [Epenesa] in the post, and then making threes always helps. Well balanced; Herbert [Martin] got to the rim some, we had some threes from Miccah [Butler] and Bryce [Pryor], and then Iose in the post.”
Edwardsville opened the fourth quarter on a 9-5 run to increase the lead to 55-45 before calling a timeout with 5:07 left in the game.
Out of the timeout, the Tigers went on a similar 8-3 run to boost the advantage to 63-49, forcing the Flyers into a timeout with 2:41 left. Edwardsville outscored East Side 7-2 to close out the game and win 70-51.
“It means a lot to our guys,” Battas said. “We have a lot of respect for East St. Louis. They’re a very good team. I think they made three threes in three possessions in the third quarter and cut it, but we really weren’t doing anything bad. They just made some tough shots which they’re capable of, so you just have to weather the storm.”
The storm was weathered as Edwardsville won its ninth game in a row.
Martin led all scorers with 21 points, Butler had 18, and Epenesa had 13. Rowan Weller and Pryor each added eight points as Edwardsville put together a great team effort.
