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EDWARDSVILLE - The Edwardsville High boys basketball team played very well against the defending IHSA Class 3A state champions, but in the end, it was the little things that made the biggest difference as the Tigers lost to East St. Louis 39-35 in a Southwestern Conference game played Wednesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
Edwardsville played tremendously on defense in holding the Flyers to 39 points after East Side hit many three-point baskets in a win over Alton. But the Tigers saw some good shots fail to drop on Wednesday in the first half, and it definitely made a big difference.
"Right, we're right there," said Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas. "I'm proud of our effort, our preparation. We didn't get to have practice, because this was a rescheduled game, had a walkthrough today. I thought our guys prepared well, and to hold them to 39 points is a terrific job. Our guys were right there. It's one or two of those open threes going down, it's a couple of free throws going down, maybe it's (Jashawn Anderson) for them missing a couple of his threes; he's not a known shooter. But we're right there. I just told our guys we're one step off the ladder away from being where we want to be, in that top two or three of the conference. We've shown we can compete with the best teams in our league. Now it's time for us to take that next step."
The Flyer defense also played well, using their height and length to block many of the Edwardsville shots.
"In a perfect world, you'd have a couple of days to practice that," Battas said, "and we'd get broomsticks out and all kinds of things to simulate that. We knew they would be long around the rim and try to get out guys on two feet and shot-making. Mostly, we emphasize getting in around the basket, passing it out to our shooters, try to work it inside out, but I thought our guys did a pretty good job taking what the defense gave them. But their room for error's pretty big when you're long, you give up a bad cut, you come back and block it off the backboard. Those are little things that come with experience, and we'll come out to practice and certainly keep working on those. But it is hard to make shots around the basket."
Still, the Edwardsville defense kept the Tigers in the game, trailing 19-12 at halftime, and cutting the deficit to four early in the second half. Nic Hemken was singled out by Battas for his efforts with that.
"I'm not sure there's a guy in the state that gets more out of his 6' 1" body than Nic Hemken does," Battas said. "He had numerous rebounds, he had offensive rebounds late that gave us a chance. He's just a really unselfish kid, and he just does whatever the coaches ask him to do. He doesn't get a lot of glory, doesn't get to score a lot of baskets. But we have a chance to win because we've got kids like Nic. And we have to play hard. I told our guys all the time we're going to make some mistakes, we're going to turn the ball over some, we're going to miss some shots, but there's a couple of non-negotiables that we have, in playing hard and playing defense. And certainly we did well on that non-negotiable list."
The Tigers also took very good care of the ball, with limited turnovers, which also helped Edwardsville have a chance to win.
"Yeah, we've been emphasizing turnovers," Battas said, "and that's what gave us a chance. Getting a shot every time we have it, and not reading the run-outs for them on turnovers, and being able to set up in our quarter-court defense. Our guys are incredible. We changed our defense just for them, totally different defense we played last night against Highland. it required a high level of intelligence and effort, because they had to cover a lot of ground. They made a bunch of threes last night against Alton, and certainly, we want our defense to always give us a chance."
The game started out with both teams missing threes in the opening minute, as Armond Williams and Brennan Weller traded the opening baskets for each team. The Flyers then went on a 7-0 run, where Williams tipped in a rebound, Macaleab Rich scored off a good pass and Jabril Olivaria knocked down a three to give East Side a 9-2 lead. The Tigers had some good looks at the basket, but were unable to hit their shots, with only an Ethan Young free throw to end the run, making the score 9-3 for the Flyers after the first quarter.
As the second quarter began, Anderson hit on a nice scoop shot and Patrick Readye hit off a miss to make it 13-3 for the Flyers, forcing an Edwardsville time out. Another Williams tip-in made it 15-3 before a Weller basket cut the lead back to 10 before the teams exchanged baskets the remainder of the quarter, with Weller hitting a short jumper right before the buzzer to make the score 19-12 for the Flyers at halftime.
The second half started well for the Tigers, as Jack Nafziger hit on a basket and Weller hit on a driving lay-up to score and make it 19-16 Flyers, which resulted in an East Side time out. Anderson hit a pair of free throws and Readye scored in the lane to restore the seven-point lead, then Readye scored again from inside and Olivaria drove the lane to score, making it 27-16 for East Side, resulting in an Edwardsville time out. Weller scored inside after the time out, but Anderson hit a three at the third-quarter buzzer to make the score 30-18 for the Flyers.
Hemken started the final quarter by hitting on a driving lay-in and drawing a foul, making it 30-20, but another Anderson three gave the Flyers a 33-20 lead. The Tigers rallied with a three with a Nafziger three, a basket from Hemken off a miss and a foul line jumper from Nafziger to make it 33-27, and after Lashawn Johnson hit a pair of free throws, a Weller three from up top cut the Flyer lead to 35-30 with 1:36 left in regulation. Young got a shot to drop from inside to cut the lead to 35-32, but the Flyers then went four-of-six from the line to increase the lead to 39-32. The Tigers got a three from Nafziger on the baseline in the final minute to make it 39-35, but could get no closer as the Flyers went on to the win.
Weller led the Tigers with 13 points on the night, followed by Nafziger with eight, Preston Weaver with seven, Hemken with six points, Young with three and Gabe James had two points. East Side's top scorer was Anderson with 14 points, Olivaria had seven points, Readye scored six and both Johnson and Williams each scored four points.
The Tigers are now 10-7 for the season and host Alton in the nightcap of a girls-boys doubleheader, with the tip-off coming at 7:30 p.m., then open play in the Jersey Tournament against Granite City on Monday night at 5 p.m. Battas is looking ahead to the matchup against the Redbirds, and also had very high praise for his players in their approach to the game and their work ethic.
"Our guys will come out to practice ready to go," Battas said, "and we want to play our best game on Friday, and I think we're right there. We're looking forward to Friday; our guys are too. We had a couple of tough ones against Alton last year, it's always a good rivalry. And our guys believe in what we're doing. We'll get to teach basketball tomorrow at two o'clock, and we won't have to manage egos and attitudes, and we think we're the luckiest coaching staff around. We get to coach basketball every day from two to five, so our guys will e ready to go, and we'll give Alton our best shot on Friday."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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