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EDWARDSVILLE – Four players scored in double figures for Edwardsville Tuesday night as the Tigers defeated O'Fallon 67-42 in the a Southwestern Conference game at Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gym; EHS improved to 16-8 on the year with the win, 9-4 in the SWC, while the Panthers fell to 10-16 overall, 5-8 in the league.

Tiger coach Mike Waldo has been happy with how his team has worked and practiced with the end of the regular season looming and the start of the IHSA Class 4A playoffs next week approaching. “We've been practicing good and we've been preparing good,” Waldo said. “All of our guys have been practicing good – all of our scout guys, our varsity guys – they've been doing a good job of preparing for the games, and I think it's been showing in our play; we're continuing to improve and I thought we did a lot of good things tonight.”

Waldo cited Jaylen Tuggle's defensive effort on the Panthers' Teron Bowman II as a key reason for the Tiger success Tuesday. “Jaylen did an excellent job on defense,” Waldo said. “He's been doing that for us for a long time; he's an excellent athlete, he tries hard and he's smart – that's an good combination on defense.”

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That wasn't the only thing that pleased Waldo on the night. “I thought Jack (Marinko) did an excellent job of taking shots when he was open,” Waldo said, “but I thought he also did a good job of making plays, making passes; I thought Jack did an excellent job of that. I thought Malik (Robinson) had a good game with the ball; (Caleb) Strohmeier had a good game on defense too – you know, (OTHS' Ronnie Anthony) is a good player too – Strohmeier did a good job on him.

“R.J. (Wilson) did a lot of good things for us tonight; he always does. He's good on the boards, he's a good defender – he made some baskets tonight too.”

The Tigers opened up a 12-7 lead on the Panthers at quarter time, then expanded it to 28-19 at the half before five quick points to open the second half to get to 33-19 forced O'Fallon to call time out, but the Tigers kept building on the lead, getting on runs that brought the lead to 47-31 at three-quarter time and keeping OTHS at bay the rest of the way.

Marinko led the Tigers with 17 points on the night, with Wilson scoring 15, Strohmeier 13 and Robinson 11; the Panthers were led by Shaun Riley's 12 points with Garrett Herring adding nine and Josiah Gibson seven.

The Tigers wrap up the regular and conference season with their annual Senior Night celebration and game against Belleville East at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Lucco-Jackson before heading to O'Fallon for the IHSA Class 4A Regional, where they will open the postseason with the winner of a first-round game between the Panthers and Belleville Althoff at 7 p.m. Feb. 28; the regional final is set for 7 p.m. March 2, with the winner advancing to the Pekin Sectional at 7 p.m. March 6 against the Quincy Regional winner.

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