ALTON – The Alton Redbirds hosted the Edwardsville Tigers in both teams' Southwestern Conference opener Friday night inside a packed Alton High School gym. It was the host Redbirds who claimed a 52-39 win, improving to 5-0 on the season for the first time in 10 years.
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The Redbirds started the 2013-14 season with a 10-0 mark, finishing with a 22-6 record under then-head coach Eric Smith.
It was Alton’s fifth straight home game to open the season, and it was the largest crowd on hand yet.
“I’m proud of our student section, I’m proud of our fans,” Alton head coach Dylan Dudley emphasized postgame. “It’s cool when kids have school spirit. In 2024, kids think they’re too cool for school and school spirit. And to see ‘The Nest’ getting back full. Obviously, we have a good product on the floor, you want to have something to cheer about. I’m just thankful for our kids.”
The Redbirds took it to Edwardsville early on, going on a 10-2 run to open the game. Semaj Stampley opened the scoring with back-to-back three-pointers before Edwardsville’s Iose Epenesa put his team on the board.
Having the tough task early on of guarding Epenesa was Jamarion Green, who helped the Redbirds offensively and defensively in the first quarter.
“I thought Jamarion Green did phenomenal in the first half,” Dudley said. “He’s played four basketball games in his high school career, and he’s come a long, long way.”
Two straight baskets from him saw the Redbirds go up 10-2. They later led 12-6 after the first quarter.
The Tigers opened the second quarter on a 7-1 run, sparked by a Miccah Butler triple and two more baskets from Epenesa that briefly tied the game at 13-13.
From there, Alton went on a 10-point run thanks to threes from Trai’Sean Sims and Stampley and back-to-back baskets from Ka’Nye Lacey to get the lead back up to 23-13. The Redbirds still led by 10 at halftime by a score of 25-15.
Alton opened up the second half on a similar nine-point run that put the Redbirds up 34-15, their largest lead of the game, but then the Tigers came back with a nine-point run of their own to end the third quarter and get it back to a 10-point game at 34-24.
Edwardsville then began the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run, six of those points from Epenesa, forcing Alton into a timeout with now only a four-point lead at 36-32 with 4:03 remaining in the game.
Coming out of the timeout, it was Alton’s possession and Stampley banged home a well-timed triple to open the lead back up.
“It relaxed us,” Dudley said of that shot. “And to be honest I didn’t think we were playing bad offense before that. Kobe had one go in and out, Semaj had one go in and out. We get two layups at the basket and miss them. But you’re going to go through those.”
“And we’ve talked about that since the beginning of the season, is this team going to be tough enough to win a game when we don’t make shots,” Dudley continued. “I think we took a little bit of a step in that direction in game one of a 12-game Southwestern Conference gauntlet.”
“It was a big three,” Stampley said. “It gave all of us a lot of momentum. After that score, it was stop, score, stop, and we finished out the game.”
From then on, the teams traded scores and free throws, but Alton would outscore the Tigers18-15 in the fourth to take the game.
Epenesa led Edwardsville’s scoring with 15 points.
“Really proud of Iose because he’s still getting into basketball shape,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said about Epenesa, who two days earlier signed to play football at the University of Iowa. “We try to watch his minutes but tonight we just needed him. He’s such a physical presence. I didn’t take him out as much. I know he was gassed, but he kept plugging along.”
“When you go into that game, you have to pick your poison,” Dudley said. “Dustin does a good job. You have to make a decision – are you going to let Epenesa score; he’s a wide-body, and he’s athletic and he can score?”
“We made an adjustment at halftime,” Dudley continued. “We just said listen, if [Epenesa] gets 20, he gets 20. We just didn’t think he could beat us with 20 and thank god it turned out that way.”
Herbert Martin added 13 points for the Tigers and Butler had eight on an off-shooting night for the Tigers who went two-for-17 from three-land.
“I thought we missed a couple of open ones early, got behind, and then rushed a couple,” Battas said. “In fact, they blocked a couple of threes which is usually a sign that you’re not that open. . . We got shellshocked a little bit when they weren’t going in. It’s something we can fix, but it’s credit to [Alton], for their pressure, running us off the arc, and contesting those shots,” Battas added.
Stampley led all scorers on the night with 20 points. Sims added nine and Kobe Taylor got eight. Nine different Redbirds got on the scoresheet.
“And that’s what we have to have,” Dudley said. “Obviously, Semaj [Stampley] is going to score, Kobe [Taylor] is going to score. Those two kids can really play. Hassani [Elliot’s] going to have a night, Trai’Sean Sims is three of whatever to start the year, he’s a 35-36 percent three-point shooter, we’re not worried about him. We’re going to get contributions. For us to win the big games, everyone has to contribute.”
The Redbirds take their first road trip on Saturday to Mount Vernon with a 7:30 p.m. tip-off before getting back into SWC action at home against East St. Louis and O’Fallon next week.
The Tigers are now 4-1 on the season and will host O’Fallon on Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
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