ALTON – Alton got out to a slow start in Friday night's Redbird Tip-Off Classic game against Carnahan High of south St. Louis city and led just 6-4 at quarter time and 21-18 at halftime over the Cougars.
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Then Alton picked it up in the second half and went on to a 64-40 win to go to 2-0 on the season and set up a championship showdown against South Side school St. Mary's at 7:30 p.m. Saturday; the Dragons defeated Riverview Gardens 105-62 in Friday's curtain-raiser.
“We really didn't play very well to start out with,” said Redbird coach Eric Smith, “We couldn't run any sets, we couldn't run any offense; for whatever reason, we were in a little bit of a funk tonight. Give the kids credit, they found a spot where they started exerting a little bit of energy and turned it around a little bit.”
The Redbirds were running slowly in the first half in Smith's eyes, but they managed to snap out of it and went on a run that put them up nine points late in the third term. “We were pretty lethargic in the first half, and it kind of carried over to what we did offensively and defensively,” Smith said. “We didn't have a lot of focus for whatever reason.”
While the win was important, Smith believes the Redbirds can't afford to get off to slow starts if they want to be successful. “The bad part about it, when we get into (Southwestern) conference play or even tomorrow night (against the Dragons), I don't think we're going to be able to just go through the motions and compete with a bunch of the people we're going to have to play,” Smith said. “Tomorrow night's a prime example; we come out and kind of go through the motions, they'll (St. Mary's) put 80 on us. We're going to have to do a little bit better.
“(Kevin Caldwell) played pretty well; he did some things defensively for us that kind of stood out. He took a couple of charges; usually, he's one of the guys we can count on to play with some energy. He did some nice things for us tonight on both ends.”
While Smith was happy to get the win, he knows his team cannot get out of the gate slowly. “We shouldn't necessarily have to talk about effort in the second game of the season,” Smith said. “That's something we have to get corrected a little bit; once we do, it's fairly evident the last two games that if we play with a little bit of energy, we do some nice things.
“We have to make sure that energy stays up; we have to make sure we have the ability to stay focused through a full 32 minutes.”
Caldwell led the Redbirds (2-0) with 20 points, with Ty'ohn Trimble adding 11 points and Maurice Edwards nine. The Cougars (0-2) were led by Darrion Gibson and Cortez Williams with nine points each, with Aaron Brookins adding seven.
Yahuza Rasas led the Dragons in their win over the Rams with 19 points, with Miles Jones adding 18 and Donavanne Austin and Antonio Burks scoring 14 each.
Riverview meets Carnahan in Saturday's curtain-raiser at 6 p.m., followed by the Redbirds-Dragons game.
OTHER SCORES FRIDAY
Edwardsville 56, Highland 37
Mascoutah 50, Jersey 38
Edwardsville 77, Champaign Central 17 (Girls)
Edwardsville 77, Peoria Central 43 (Girls)
Belleville Althoff 88, Waterloo 60
O'Fallon 55, Carbondale 42
Civic Memorial 50, Nokomis 24
Nashville 70, McGivney Catholic 12
Litchfield 38, Piasa Southwestern 33 (Girls)
