Tigers fall short in dramatic low-scoring affair between Ladue

LADUE - There are some games where both teams baskets have lids on them figuratively.

For the young Edwardsville Tigers, they put on a solid defensive clinic against the talented Ladue Rams, but so did the Rams and both had ultra difficulty finding ways to put the ball in the basket. Ultimately the game came down to the wire.

In a low-scoring slugfest where points came at a premium, the Tigers fell to the Rams by a bizarre 24-22 scoreline in the finale of the 1st annual Ladue Round-Robin Tournament on Thursday night at Nielson Gymnasium.

“Obviously we’re really proud of our defensive effort. We have a lot of respect for Ladue. They have good players and well coached,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said. “The thing we’re most proud of right now is we had a great walk-through. To be able to get done what we did on defense just out of a walk-through show that our guys, although not experienced necessarily are very mature and pretty locked in. We’d like to make a few more baskets, but right now we’re really happy where our defense is.”

With under two minutes to play, Jaylon Tuggle saved the basketball from going out of bounds, but Ladue point guard Jaylen Boyd intercepted the pass at half-court. He raced to the basket and threw down a dunk which proved to be the game-winning basket.

Edwardsville got multiple attempts including a wide-open corner three-point attempt with just under a minute to play that was off the mark. With 15 seconds to play, Nick Hemken attempted a contested fade-away shot that missed.

With 11 seconds to go, the Tigers fouled the Rams four times to bring their team foul total to six. On the next inbound, Ladue’s Nate Garrett was whistled for a pushing foul that gave Edwardsville one last chance with 6.4 seconds left. However, on the ensuing inbound to Lavontas Hariston, Xavier Hadley, who was attempting to intentionally foul him instead knocked the ball off Tuggle’s right foot and was scooped up by teammate Evan Schneider who was eventually fouled with 0.2 to play, virtually ending the game.

Contrary to Battas who was coaching his second career game as a head coach, Ladue’s Chad Anderson is in year No. 11 at the helm for the Rams and admitted that he’d never been a part of any game as low-scoring as this one.

“I have never been a part of something like that before. I knew this was going to be a grind. Both teams play a similar style. Patience offense, good defense,” Anderson said. “We’ve worked a ton on defense, and our kids followed the game plan. We were able to execute a heck of a game on defense.”

Ladue led Edwardsville 8-7 heading to the second quarter, but the Tigers put a lid on the Rams basket by holding them to four points in the quarter. A big reason why the game was so tight and slow was due to the fact Edwardsville showed a considerable amount of patience on offense while defensively forcing the taller Rams to shoot outside shots, which they struggled all game mightily long.

The Tigers took away Schneider, Ladue’s 6-foot-6 junior forward by double-teaming him whenever he touched the ball. He was held to two points after scoring 16 on Monday against Oakville.

“We were really impressed with [Schneider] when we watched him play on Monday night,” Battas said. “He plays hard all the time. He’s very strong and skilled so we spent a lot of time doubling the posts — the bind that puts you in and have [Bussard], [Hadley] and [Garrett] that can make threes. Doubling the posts, you’re going to give up something, and there are two threes we gave up because we spent so much time taking the post away. Defense is a series of calculated risks, and we were really happy with our post defense.”

Edwardsville was led Jaylon Tuggle for the second game as he scored eight points and Grant Schaefer chipped in five.

“I liked the flow of the game. It was a pace we’re comfortable of playing,” Battas said. “We were executing a lot of things good, but we were missing shots around the rim and some open threes.

Similarly, Ladue held Edwardsville sophomore Brennen Weller, who scored 12 the night before to two points as well.

Ladue was led by junior point guard Jaylen Boyd who scored a team-high eight points. Sophomore guard Jack Minkler was a spark off the bench as he scored seven points, including two three-pointers.

“He’s our most inexperienced player, and he plays with so much confidence, and that’s why he’s playing with us,” Anderson said. “He plays great defense, and he can certainly score when we need him to.”

The Tigers outscored the Rams 11-4 in the second quarter and led 18-12 at halftime but would score four second half and none in the fourth quarter. Ladue fought back from a 20-14 third-quarter deficit and outscored Edwardsville 10-2 in the final ten minutes, including a 7-0 run.

The Rams, who played with eight total players last night were down three additional key players including 6-foot-7 Illinois football commit Moses Okpala due to them playing in the Missouri Class 4 state championship tonight.

“The upside of this team is pretty good,” Anderson said. “Without a 6-7 kid, two kids that’ll certainly help us. We’ll have some depth for sure and won’t have to play six or seven [players] for the rest of the season.”

Ladue moves to 2-0 on the season and will travel to Lutheran South next Tuesday

Edwardsville moves to 1-1 and will prepare for their first home game this Saturday as they take on the Althoff Catholic Crusaders at 1 p.m. at Lucco-Jackson Gymnasium.

“I felt like our guys did a good enough job to give themselves a chance to win and as a coach that’s what you always hope for,” Battas said. “I’m sure they’re hurting a bit, and that’s okay. I told them if you’re happy then this isn’t the right place for you and they get that. They want to win; they work awful hard. I think they are disappointed but not discouraged.”

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