EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville picked up right from where they left off in their Tuesday night win over Gateway STEM of St. Louis, getting a big quarter-time lead on Granite City and never looking back as the Tigers defeated the Warriors 72-49 in a Southwestern Conference game at Lucco-Jackson Gym Friday night.
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The win put EHS at 6-1 on the season, 3-1 in the SWC; the Warriors fell 2-7 overall, 0-4 in the league.
“I thought our guys did a lot of good things on the floor,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “I thought defensively, we did a really good job – they've got some athletes. I think they're a well-coached team, they've got some good athletes and it was hard to keep (them) from getting to the basket, but I thought we did a good job with that and we did a good job rebounding.
“Offensively, I thought we executed a lot of things good.”
When asked what the best thing about the Tigers so far has been, “I think we've been practicing good,” Waldo said. “I think we've been preparing well and it shows when the guys play.”
“It's good to get another conference win,” said the Tigers' Jack Marinko, who led EHS with 23 points. “Stroh (Caleb Strohmeier, who had 21 points on the night) and R.J. (Wilson, who put up 10 points), they played good in the post and they dominated them in the post; I thought we played good defense. They never had an open shot – it was all contested; it was an overall good game.”
“Oh, man, they're really good,” Warrior coach Gerard Moore said of the Tigers, “and they're coached by a great coach – everyone knows him; he's a hall of famer. He was ready for our spread offense and he threw a little wrinkle at us today with that 1-3-1 (defense); my young team was just not ready to adapt to it.
“I'll have to admit, I'll put a lot of that blame on me – I didn't see it coming. That's a tough zone.”
Marinko was singled out by Moore for his performance. “He got hot early and once we got downhill, it was hard to climb up; they're hard to stop,” Moore said.
Edwardsville began to pull away early, taking a double-digit lead in the opening quarter and ended the period ahead 19-6, building the lead up slowly and being ahead at 42-14 at the half and 59-24 at three-quarter time.
Lavontas Hairston added eight points for the Tigers and Matt Stopka four for EHS on the night. The Warriors were led by Zidane Moore with 13 points and Emmitt Gordon with 11; Jerry Watson also contributed eight points and Devontay Mason six points.
Next up for the Tigers is a 7:30 p.m. Wednesday game at East St. Louis, their final game before they take on Belleville Althoff in the opening round of the Collinsville-Prairie Farms Holiday Classic at 8 p.m. Dec. 28; the Warriors next meet up with at home against Collinsville at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday before meeting Springfield Southeast at 9 a.m. Dec. 28 in the opening game of the Collinsville tournament.
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