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ALTON – This week wasn't the easiest of weeks for Alton's basketball team.
Especially considering when the Redbirds heard the news earlier that DeMonte Wigfall, who had played with the team last year before graduating, was killed in a crash in Rockford.
The Redbirds remembered Wigfall with shirts they wore during warmups and on the bench saying “Redbird for Life” and Wigfall #2.
Plus the Redbirds were taking on Edwardsville, who had the chance to clinch the outright Southwestern Conference title with a win.
Alton held a lead at quarter time, but the Tigers got on a run and managed to take a comfortable lead at the half before pulling away most of the third term, only to see the Redbirds pull to within one not once, but right at the end of the game.
The Tigers, behind 22 points from Mark Smith and 20 points from A.J. Epenesa, managed to hold off the Redbirds 61-60 to go to 12-0 in the SWC and 21-4 overall.
“We told them at the beginning of the game that the only thing we expect from them was that they compete, and the chips fall where they may,” said Redbird coach Eric Smith. “As long as we compete, we feel like we've got a chance.”
“Alton played an excellent game,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “Their defense was good, they were hard to guard. Their schemes offensively put us in binds a lot; I thought they played an excellent game and I think our guys did a lot of things well tonight, but we had to play good tonight because Alton really played well.”
The emotion of Wigfall's death helped carry the Redbirds throughout the game; they got out to a 19-13 lead at quarter time, but saw the Tigers get on a roll and seemingly take command to get out to a 30-24 lead at the long break, a lead that got as large as 39-28 with 4:40 to go in the third term thanks to an Epenesa basket inside; Smith and Oliver Stephen had huge contributions to help extend the lead, but the Redbirds came roaring back thanks to some big buckets mostly from Paul Harris and Ty'ohn Trimble that helped Alton managed to get back to 41-40 behind when the buzzer for three-quarter time went off.
Some key scores from Caleb Strohmeier helped build the Edwardsville lead back up a bit but the Redbirds wouldn't go away; Harris kept hitting key buckets to keep Alton close, but Smith and Epenesa kept Alton at bay with some key scores down the stretch, including the two teaming up on an alley-oop dunk in the final minute. Trimble hit a three-point shot with 5.3 seconds left in the final term to pull the Redbirds to 61-60, but Alton was out of timeouts and couldn't stop the clock.
Harris wound up leading the Redbirds (12-9 overall, 6-4 SWC) with 20 points, while Tre Smith contributed 18 points.
Edwardsville finishes the regular season with games against O'Fallon and Belleville East, while the Redbirds close out with games against Belleville West and O'Fallon next week heading into the IHSA Class 4A Basketball Championship.
SEE POST-GAME VIDEOS BELOW:
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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