EDWARDSVILLE – It would be safe to say that Jack Marinko had a hot hand in Edwardsville's 84-45 Southwestern Conference win over Belleville East at Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gym Tuesday night.
Marinko led all scorers with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from three-point range, but it wasn't all the junior guard's doing that helped the Tigers run home winners.
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“I think we played really good defense and help defense on (Javon) Pickett (who has signed to play at Illinois next season),” Marinko said. “He's a great player and I think we did a really good job on him.
"Our defense and rebounding (helped the Tigers); we boxed out and didn't give them many second-chance points. We limited them to one shot and we took good shots every time we went down the floor.”
Marinko credited Mark Smith with helping him with his performance. “Mark was just finding me,” Marinko said. “I was feeling it tonight; every time he passed it to me, I was looking to shoot for it.”
Marinko's brother Dan, who was an outstanding athlete for Edwardsville before his 2015 graduation, is a source of motivation for Jack Marinko. “He always motivates me,” Jack Marinko said. “He texts me before each game, telling me 'you gotta go out there and do what you do'.”
“We definitely had a good game,” said Caleb Strohmeier, who had 10 points on the night for the Tigers. “We we just came out and executed Coach (Mike) Waldo's game plan; we did a lot of good things well.
“We've got a lot of good shooters; that's just practice. Practice is paying off.”
Tuesday's win was a good bounce-back win for the Tigers following their loss to Belleville West Saturday evening in the SWC @ The E showcase at SIU-Edwardsville's Vadalebene Center. “We didn't necessarily shoot well Saturday,” Strohmeier said, “so we were hungry to get back at it.”
“It's huge,” Marinko said of the bounce-back win. “They're a great team; they didn't shoot the ball that well and we came out and we were fired up and ready to go from the start.”
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