Edwardsville comes back late and fights off East St. Louis

EAST ST. LOUIS - When teams come to East St. Louis to take on the Flyers, they’re going to need a lunch pail.

Down by three at 49-46 with under two minutes to play, the young Edwardsville Tigers had to find a way to dig deep to win.

“We kept our heads the whole game and kept trying to execute things like we do in practice regardless of what had happened,” Edwardsville head coach Mike Waldo said. “Our guys showed a lot of discipline of doing what we practice, and then a couple of good things happened for us at the end.”

Caleb Strohmeier made two free throws to pull the Tigers within one then Edwardsville forced a turnover, and Jack Marinko drained a three-pointer with just over a minute to play that gave the Tigers a vital 51-49 lead. On the following Flyers possession, R.J. Wilson came up with a steal and Marinko was subsequently intentionally fouled. He made both foul shots and did so again moments later to put the game to bed.

For the third straight season, the Edwardsville Tigers came out of East St. Louis victoriously winning 57-52 on Wednesday night. They improve to 4-1 in the Southwestern Conference and 7-1 overall.

“We did a good job defensively. We did a good job on [Hargrove] and [Reece]. Those guys are both good players. They do a lot of good things to create opportunities,” I thought Jaylon [Tuggle] and Strohmeier did a really good job of limiting their touches. That’s hard work,” Our guys played hard and executed a lot of things, and that helped us,” Waldo said. “It’s a really good win for our guys because East St. Louis is going to win a lot of games this year. They got some good players, and they’re well-coached. Being able to beat them is a good reward for our guys.”

Star forward Terrence Hargrove Jr. scored 15 points for the Flyers while D1 recruit, Joe Reece, and Traeveion Jones added nine points apiece.

“It’s always hard to play down here. They’re very athletic, and Hargrove and Reece are really hard to play against. We gave the lead up a little bit, and we kept fighting, stuck together, and we pulled it out,” Marinko said.

Coming into the game, Marinko averaged 28 points a game and last night he scored 37 as Edwardsville kept feeding him the ball. Strohmeier, as he’s usually done thus far was second in points with 17. Malik Robinson was the only other Tiger who made a field goal and finished with two but did set up Marinko and Strohmeier for several good looks.

“Jack did a good job of moving to get open, and we did a good job of finding him. He’s shot a lot of shots. He’s practiced shooting a lot; he works at it,” Waldo said. “We had a lot of guys play well offensively. I thought Malik had a great game. He did a really good job of taking care of the ball and getting the ball in good opportunities to score. Jack scored the most points, but we executed a lot of good things on offense.”

Marinko was actually one of the few players who played all 32 minutes of the game for Edwardsville, but his secret to success to is one that is quite familiar.

“In practice coach gets me ready. I’m running up and down for three hours, so I’m in shape for the game. Hard work pays off,” Marinko said. “I let the offense come to me. I’m not expecting to go out there and do this, but when the offense comes to me, I’m ready to get a bucket.”

After an ever first half, the Tigers took off in the third quarter and led by as many as nine points, but the Flyers cut into the lead, which included a thunderous tomahawk dunk by Reece. If there was a play that could sum up Marinko’s performance it was the three-pointer he sank at the buzzer as the quarter ended that gave the Tigers a 46-39 lead.

“It’s a hostile environment down here, and I thought it was a great win,” Marinko said.