The Tigers' sophomore Alec Marchetto had a big game on Senior Night with five key points and his defensive play. Coach Dustin Battas singled him out for a big bright spot for the Tigers Friday evening. (Photo by Dan Brannan)The Flyers' Macaleab Rich goes in slam dunk against the Tigers on Friday night. (Photo by Dan Brannan)EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville held a 30-26 lead over East St. Louis with 6:51 left in regulation, but the Flyers came from behind with the game's final eight points, climaxed by a Christian Jones basket off a missed free throw with 15 seconds left, to give the Flyers a 34-30 Southwestern Conference win over the Tigers Friday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

The Tigers hosted their annual Senior Night, where the seven seniors - Matthew Greer, Shaun Pacatte, Hersch Greene, Zach Hoffmann, Lucas Greer, Jake Siebers and Carson Chenault - and their families were honored and thanked for their contributions, as were the senior cheerleaders and their families, and Edwardsville played very inspired basketball throughout the game, giving the Flyers everything they wanted.

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"We're really proud of our guys," said Tigers' head coach Dustin Battas, "and we told them the goal is to compete and give yourself a chance to win. And we know that East St. Louis is a great opponent. So we're proud of the effort, we're proud of the execution and we've been waiting for that type of performance. I know we lost, so it still doesn't sit great. But I think you could tell that mentally, we made very few mistakes and physically, I thought we competed with a real physical, gifted team. So there's a lot to be proud of and I just told them to keep their heads up and try to think of a couple of good things they did there and maybe one play they'd like to have back. And that's all the difference between losing and beating one of the top teams in the state of Illinois. So really good effort by our guys."

The Tigers dictated the tempo of the game against East Side, which allowed the Tigers to hold the lead for much of the game.

"Yeah, and we've done that in the past," Battas said. "We just haven't been quite able to this year. People think it's easy to control tempo against an athletic team, but you've got to be able to take care of the ball. You've got to have guys that are tough and they get tired and they're still going to the right spots. We probably weren't able to do that a month ago. Our guys have just been improving in practice, got acclimated to the competitiveness. But that's definitely what we had to do tonight, limit their touches.

"They're really hard to guard," Battas continued. "When we had the ball, take care of it, make them guard us, get lay-ups or wide-open threes. We executed those things, we executed the game plan very well. So proving that we could do that when we needed is going to help our guys' confidence moving forward."

The Flyers forced four crucial turnovers by the Tigers in the final stretch when Edwardsville led 30-26, after Malik Allen hit a big three-pointer to give the Tigers their cushion.

"It's a big shot by Malik," Battas said. "For a sophomore, he's not afraid to take those, which is good. Then yeah, we tried to run a few things; one was out of a time out. They just run and jump and trap you. A lot of those, the scary part is they tip it when you're two inches away from a wide-open lay-up, they tip it. So, they got their hands on one and got a run, (Jones) got a run out; he's hard to guard in transition. So that ends up being the difference sometimes. Like I said, if you get that pass over his fingertips, you've got a guy wide open at the rim.

"Great play by him to tip it, go get it and we know that can happen. You just try to give yourself a chance. I thought our guys really battled, Isayah (Kloster), Hersch and Pacatte really battled for every rebound. And (Jordan) Bush and A.J. (Tillman), (Alec) Marchetto and Malik were excellent in taking care of the ball. We put Marchetto in a big role with Bryce (Spiller) being out sick. I thought it's evident that he's a confident kid for a sophomore, and he's not afraid of the moment and I think there's a lot of potential there for Marchetto and he showed that edge to him tonight. And there's a lot of sophomores, I think, that would have been frightened to play 25 minutes against East St. Louis. Marchetto was a bright spot."

Flyers' coach Mark Chambers agreed that it was an excellent game by both teams and credited Battas for coming up with a game plan for the Tigers.

"Yeah, that was a really, really good game," Chambers said. "(Battas) had a really good game plan for us and his team executed, but we made some plays, in the end, to help us pull it out."

The Tigers were able to shut down East Side's one-two combination of Jones and Macaleab Rich for most of the game, but the Flyers came up with the plays they needed to in going on to the win, including Jones' clutch basket near the end.

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"We just wanted him to stay patient," Chambers said. "He started a little slow, but he picked it up there at the end and he played at the end the way we needed him to play. He made enough plays and both of them made enough plays to help us win that game. And really, that's all that counts."

The win give the Flyers plenty of momentum in the final week of the regular season and going into the IHSA Class 3A playoffs, which are slated to start the week of Feb. 21.

"Yeah it does," Chambers said. "Unfortunately, we still have O'Fallon, Collinsville and (Belleville) East next week. So it's going to be a tough week for us, and this kind of gets us ready for that. Hopefully, all these games will get us ready for the playoffs, because we're seeing all different styles. It's good for our team, we're growing and we're looking forward to the future."

In other words - just another night in the Southwestern Conference.

"Exactly, exactly," Chambers said with a smile. "That's what I was just telling my guys. I said 'this is Southwestern Conference basketball' and I'm just thankful that we came in and played well enough to win the game."

The Flyers scored the first four points of the game, off a lay-in and dunk from Rich to give East Side an early 4-0 lead. The Tigers countered with a basket from Pacatte and a three from Marchetto to take their first lead at 5-4, then got a basket at the buzzer from Pacatte to give Edwardsville a 7-4 lead after the first quarter.

The Tigers extended the lead to 9-4 early on a Marchetto basket, with East Side coming back on a basket from Rich and a dunk from Jones to cut the lead to 9-8, then tied it on a free throw from Rich at 9-9. The Flyers then took a 12-11 lead, with Allen scoring the next four points to give the Tigers a 15-12 advantage. Free throws from Kloster and Pacatte upped the lead to 18-12, but the Flyers were able to go on a 5-2 run to cut the Tigers' lead to 20-17 at halftime.

Demarion Brown and Mackenly Falconer scored at the start of the second half, including a three from Falconer, to give the Flyers a 24-20 lead, but Allen connected on a three of his own to cut the edge to 24-23. The Tigers went back on top on a Pacatte basket, then held the ball for the last two minutes of the period as Allen drove the lane and scored before the buzzer to give the Tigers a 27-24 lead after three quarters.

A Jones basket at the start of the fourth quarter cut the lead to 27-26, with Allen hitting a big baseline three to give the Tigers a 30-26 lead with 6:51 to go in regulation. After that, the Flyers took over, forcing four turnovers in the period, getting a basket from Jones to cut the lead to 30-28, then getting four big free throws from both Rich and Terrell Scott, the latter with 2:30 left in regulation, to give the Flyers a 32-30 lead. In the final seconds, Rich missed the front end of a one-and-one with 15 seconds left, but Jones was there to gather the rebound and put it home to give the Flyers their 34-30 win.

Rich led East Side with 12 points, while Demarion Brown and Jones each had six points and both Falconer and Scott had five points apiece. The Tigers were led by Allen's 14 points, while Pacatte had eight points, Marchetto scored five points and Kloster had three points.

The Flyers are now 20-5 and host St. Louis Vashon tonight in a 7:30 p.m. start, then winds up the regular season at home on Tuesday against O'Fallon, at Collinsville next Thursday, and at home against Belleville East, with all three games tipping off at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers go to 10-17 and finish on the road with games at Collinsville on Tuesday and at Belleville West next Friday, with both games also starting at 7:30 p.m.

Edwardsville's Malik Allen eyes the basket for a free throw against the Flyers on Friday night. (Photo by Dan Brannan)

The Tigers' Shaun Pacatte controls the ball in the game against East Side on Friday night. (Photo by Dan Brannan)Jordan Bush handles the ball for the Tigers against the Flyers. (Photo by Dan Brannan)

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