GRANITE CITY REGIONAL SEMIFINAL
ALTON 53, QUINCY 43: Kevin Caldwell's 17-point game helped Alton get past Quincy 53-43 in Wednesday's IHSA Class 4A Granite City Regional semifinal at Granite City's Memorial Gym.
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The win sent the Redbirds into Friday night's final against top-ranked and Southwestern Conference rival Edwardsville; the game commences at 7 p.m., with a trip to the Ottawa Sectional on the line. Friday's winner will take on the Belleville East Regional winner at a Metro East venue to be announced at 7 p.m. Tuesday, with the winner advancing to the March 10 sectional final in Ottawa.
Caldwell said he felt good about his 17-point performance. His main focus he said on both ends of the court is helping "my team win" and supporting his teammates.
Alton head coach Alton Eric Smith said at the beginning of game the Redbirds took too many threes, but as the game moved on the team moved the ball around in good fashion for the open shot, a key to the game. Another big key he said was his team playing well on both the offensive and defensive end.
"We have good kids," Smith said after the win. "We have had ups and downs and injuries. You look at the seeds of this tournament and the losses on our schedule and they mean something. We lost to St. Mary's, Champaign Central, Belleville West, Belleville East and Edwardsville; everybody has been ranked that we have lost to. We have three kids who are doing the majority of ball handling who are varsity kids, one is a three-year starter, that is a big key for us. Caldwell made some big shots, rebounding and playing defense."
"When it comes to post-season play whether you like it or not, the game gets more physical," Quincy coach Andy Douglas said. "It got physical on the inside. We play any other game and some of those are called fouls on their end and on our end. We didn't adapt very well to the contact and we missed some easy ones.
"The games I have seen Alton play they live off driving and kicking off shots. They made plays and knocked down some big shots. It is disappointing to see us not do the next thing we needed to do. We did 90 percent of it right."
Alton improved to 16-11 on the year with the win; the Blue Devils were eliminated at 20-6.
Ty'ohn Trimble had 14 points for the Redbirds, with Dereaun Clay adding 10, Maurice Edwards four, Donovan Clay and Dartell Smith three each and Morris Adams two. Parker Bland led Quincy with 14 points, with Garrett Gadeke adding 10 and Aaron Shoot six.
Trimble made some big plays late in the game when it was tight that enabled Alton to pull away to the victory. Smith said Trimble has been a key all season and some of what the point guard does for the team doesn't always show up in the box score.
The game was tied 10-10 at the end of the first quarter, then Alton took the lead 21-19 at the half. The Redbirds led 34-29 at the end of three and pulled away in the fourth period.
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