Flyers defeat Tigers 47-36 at Lucco-Jackson Gym

EDWARDSVILLE – East St. Louis came to Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gym Friday night and came away with the win over the Tigers, the Flyers getting 10 points each from Joe Reece and Eric Rodgers in a 47-36 win to go to 10-9 overall on the year, 5-5 in the Southwestern Conference; the Tigers fell to 12-8 overall, 5-4 in the league.

“They were clearly well-prepared and well-coached and they were hard to score against,” EHS coach Mike Waldo said. “You've got to give them a lot of credit for their defensive scheme and how hard they tried at it; my guys kept battling – it was hard to get shots, especially in the first half. We just kept on battling and we had a shot at tying it; I give my guys a lot of credit for competing well against a well-coached, athletic team.

“I thought we did a lot of good things on defense; (Jaylon) Tuggle and (Caleb) Strohmeier, they played hard and they tried hard against two athletic, big guys (Reece and Rodgers); East St. Louis did a lot of things to get those guys open and I thought Strohmeier and Tuggle did a great job of taking those guys away. I thought our defense off the ball was good too – defensively, I thought we did a lot of good things the whole game; it was just really hard for us to score and I think you have to give them credit.”

“We just wanted to come in and make it difficult for them on the offensive end,” said Flyer coach Mark Chambers. “We did a pretty good job of it; we held (Jack) Marinko to two points in the first half and that is the type of defense that is going to help us win games; it's a great win for the program. We are growing; these kids are resilient and I'm so proud of them.”

The game started out slowly; Edwardsville got out to the very early lead but the Flyers got rolling and went on a run that put them ahead at one point 9-2 in the opening quarter, the Flyers eventually getting to a 13-4 lead at quarter time. The Tigers came back in the second period, pulling to 17-13 at one point before the Flyers pulled away again to a 23-15 lead at the long break.

East Side got on a run at the start of the first half and pulled to a 32-15 lead before Edwardsville scored for the first time; Marinko, who had been held to two points in the first half, came alive and found ways to pull the Tigers to 32-28 with 2:46 left in the third, but a Rodgers pair of three throws extended the lead to 34-28 before a R.J. Wilson score got the Tigers to 34-30 at three-quarter time.

The Tigers kept coming and managed to pull to 36-34 with 5:15 left in the final quarter thanks to a floater in the lane by Marinko, but that was as close as the Tigers would come, the Flyers coming up with the answers when they needed them to hold off EHS down the stretch.

Marinko led the Tigers with 15 points, with Strohmeier adding 10, Tuggle five, Wilson four and Mali Robinson two; besides the 10 each from Reece and Rodgers, Terrence Overcharge had nine points and Cornelius Leflore six.

The Tigers' five remaining games in the regular season are all in the league, starting with a 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 game at Granite City and a 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13 trip to Collinsville. “We've played some pretty good teams lately,” Waldo said. “We've played Centralia (in the Salem Invitational final), then we played Belleville West (on the road), then we played East St. Louis; that's three pretty good teams in a row.

“Our guys have battled; we'll keep on practicing and keep on working and trying to get better and try to play good next Friday against Granite City, who's playing pretty good right now too.”

FRIDAY'S AREA RESULTS

BOYS

East St. Louis 47, Edwardsville 36

Alton 62, Belleville East 54

Collinsville 64, Granite City 42

Belleville West 71, O'Fallon 41

Marquette Catholic 50, McCluer North 48

Civic Memorial 60, Jersey 58 (OT)

North Greene 50, Piasa Southwestern 44

Nokomis 65, Bunker Hill 32

East Alton-Wood River 53, Brussels 41

GIRLS

Carlinville 47, East Alton-Wood River 37

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