ALTON – For the last three seasons, the Edwardsville Tigers have been one-and-done in the postseason.
Not this time.
The boys basketball team improved to 28-2 after defeating Granite City 61-37 Wednesday night in an IHSA Class 4A regional semifinal played at Alton High School.
With high hopes of getting to the regional championship on Friday to play the hosting Redbirds (who beat Collinsville 52-46 in the other semifinal), Edwardsville still had a job to do in round one.
And the Tigers meant business early.
They got off to a 12-0 start, half of those points coming from Herbert Martin, a four-point play from Bryce Pryor, and a basket from Miccah Butler. The Warriors came back to make it 12-6, but Edwardsville closed the quarter on an 8-2 run to make it 21-8 after one.
“We have a lot of respect for Granite City and their coach does a tremendous job,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said. “I know they’ve had a difficult season, but [number] 33 is a really good player, and he always has them ready to go. We practiced good and prepared well and I thought that was evident with the good start we got off to.”
Granite City number 33 is junior Evan Brewer, the team’s leading scorer averaging nearly 16 points per game. He scored his team’s first five points in the second quarter, but the Tigers kept pace and were up 36-15 at halftime.
The Tigers opened the second half on an 8-3 run to get to their largest lead of the night, 26 points at 44-18. They led 44-24 after three.
Granite City did enough to avoid the running clock but was never much threat to the Tigers.
“You still have to be ready to go,” Battas said. “Our guys have done a good job all year of treating every game like it’s a big deal and that’s why we were able to win the conference title to be honest; every Tuesday and Friday they were ready to go.”
Brewer and Jack Dutko led the Warriors with 11 points apiece while Javier Cass added nine points. Granite’s season comes to an end at 9-23.
Leading the charge for the Tigers were the typical suspects. Martin led all scores with 15 points while Butler and Iose Epenesa each added 13. Rowan Weller scored nine points and Pryor finished with seven.
It was Edwardsville’s 12th win in a row as they head toward Friday’s regional championship with all the momentum in the world. They’ll be playing for a regional title for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
The last time the Tigers held up the regional plaque was in 2016-17 under Mike Waldo.
The No. 2-seeded Tigers got their wish and will play No. 3-seeded Alton Friday night in what should be an exciting game in front of a packed house in Alton beginning at 7 p.m.
“I just told the guys that these are the games to look forward to,” Battas said. “It’s going to be crowded. Whoever it is, it will be the third time playing them with good players, good coaches, lots of passionate fans. Those are the games I think are the most fun and the ones you remember for a long time. We just hope we can come up on the victorious side of that.”
