EDWARDSVILLE – Every night in the Southwestern Conference is going to be a battle among the eight teams in the league this boys basketball season.
Saturday evening's clash between Edwardsville and Belleville West was a good example of how tough every game will be.
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The Maroons got 15 points from Eric Liddell and 14 points from Dalton Fox in a 59-53 win over Edwardsville in the third game of the four-game SWC @ The E showcase at SIU-Edwardsville's Vadalabene Center.
“We played a good team,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “Their big guys (Tyler Dancy and Liddell) are real good; they've got athletes, they made a lot of shots, they're well-coached – they put us in a lot of binds. They did some real good things offensively to bother our defense, and I just think you've got to give them a lot of credit.
“They played good and they're a good team; it's going to be that way every night in the league. I'm not disappointed in my guys; we just played a good team.”
The Maroons made several big shots early on and it helped set the tone for the game. “We got behind early,” Waldo said. “They had a lot of guys make shots – they had three or four different guys make threes early and I thought getting behind early hurt us.
“I think we executed in our scheme of defense pretty good, but they made the shots we gave them. You just have to give them credit.”
The Maroons held a 19-16 quarter-time lead on the Tigers and it remained steady throughout the second term, West leading Edwardsville 30-25 at the half. Mark Smith cut it to 30-28 with a traditional three-point play early in the third term but the Maroons, on scores from Liddell and Dancy put West on top 37-28; they built on the lead and made it 41-34 at three-quarter time.
The closest Edwardsville could come was 41-38 after an A.J. Epenesa score early on in the final term but the Maroons held off the Tigers with big buckets down the stretch from Dancy and Will Lanxon as West came away winners on the night.
Lanxon finished the night with 13 points and Dancy 12; the Tigers were led by Mark Smith's 28 points, with Epenesa adding 14 and Jack Marinko and Oliver Stephen eight each.
In the day's other two games, O'Fallon defeated Collinsville 61-51 and in the feature contest of the event, East St. Louis defeated Belleville East 84-77 in overtime.
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