EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville took the floor at Lucco-Jackson Gym Friday night and took care of business.
The Tigers got 15 points from Jack Marinko and 11 each from Mark Smith and Oliver Stephen as EHS slowly pulled away from Granite City to take a 71-29 win over the Warriors in a Southwestern Conference game.
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The win put the Tigers at 22-1 on the year, 9-1 in the SWC; the Warriors fell to 1-19 on the season, 0-10 in the league.
“We practiced good Wednesday and Thursday; our guys did a good job of preparing and I thought we executed a lot of things during the game,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “It was a good win for us; we did a lot of things well tonight.
“I felt we did a good job with out defense; I thought Caleb (Strohmeier) and Jack (Marinko) did a good job limiting the touches of their good players; I thought they did of that. They played hard doing that and I thought we had good help off the ball; we did a good job of passing the ball tonight.”
Edwardsville was able to insert their reserves into the game about midway through the third quarter and they didn't miss a beat. “Those guys have all played good varsity minutes for us this year,” Waldo said. “(Nathan) Kolesa has played a lot of good varsity minutes for us this year and so has Jackson Best and (Zach) Doornink. I thought they played good in the game tonight too.”
With Collinsville coming to Lucco-Jackson Tuesday night, the process doesn't change for the Tigers. “We'll go back to work and try to prepare for Collinsville the best we can,” Waldo said. “I think that's the way you improve is just keep getting ready for each game.”
Kolesa had nine points for Edwardsville, with A.J. Epenesa scoring seven and pulling in 11 rebounds while Smth and Stephen had six rebounds and Strohmeier had four. Matt Stopka, Strohmeier and R.J. Wilson had four points each and Doornink and Malik Robinson scored three points each.
Jacob Spears led the Warriors with nine points, with Marquis Shaw adding six and Nick Grote and Kendrick Williba scoring three each.
Following Tuesday's home game against the Kahoks, Edwardsville closes out with a home game against Alton and road games at O'Fallon and Belleville East. The Warriors finish up with a Tuesday game at O'Fallon, then host Belleville East, visit East St. Louis and host Belleville West to finish the regular season.
The pairings and schedules for the IHSA Class 4A playoffs will be announced Feb. 17. “You always play the season with a little bit of looking forward to the postseason; we're always doing that, you just prepare for each game and that helps prepare you for the postseason and that's what we're doing,” Waldo said.
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