EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville’s star guard Mark Smith was closely guarded and fouled all night long against East St. Louis.
With star forward A.J. Epenesa in San Antonio preparing for the U.S. Army All-American Game, it was Smith who was the undoubtedly main focal point on offense for the Edwardsville Tigers against the loaded East St. Louis Flyers. Late in the game Tuesday night at Edwardsville with victory in hand and after being closely handled all night long, the lane opened up, and Smith saw daylight for a dunk
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“I wanted it,” Smith said.
The six-foot-four-inch senior point guard went down the lane and threw down a thunderous jam that came to the delight of himself and Lucco-Jackson Gym, which is what a lot had come to see the newly big-time Division-1 recruit do.
“It was the icing on the cake with all that fouling,” Smith said. “They said they were going to let us play and you can’t complain about it. I thought we were mentally tough and showed a lot of toughness to pull out a win against a good team.”
Coming off of the Collinsville Prairie Farm Classic and being named the M.V.P., Smith finished with a triple-double; a game-high 26 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. The Tigers, ranked No. 3 in the AP Class 4A Illinois High School Basketball Rankings defeated the Flyers 66-55 on Tuesday night. Edwardsville goes to 12-1 on the season and 4-1 in the SWC, while East St. Louis falls to 8-5 and 4-1 in the SWC as well.
“To not have A.J. he’s a big scorer. A lot of people stepped up,” Smith said. “Caleb (Strohmeier) scored. Nate (Kolesa) came off and scored. We saw people that can step up.”
“They’ve (East St. Louis) got big guys around the basket, which makes it hard to score. When you raise up to shoot you think, you’re open and you’re not as open as you thought you were. I think that contributed to us not making as high as a percentage as we usually do,” Edwardsville head coach Mike Waldo said. “You have to give them credit for that. We had to play a good game offensively because their defense is awfully good.”
The one big guy that makes life strenuous in the paint is University of Illinois recruit Jeremiah Tilmon.
“They've got Jeremiah, he's going to Illinois, he's an All-American, he’s really good in the paint,” Smith said. “I thought we did an excellent job guarding and doubling him and not letting him make shots and rebounding them.”
Zach Doornink picked up two quick fouls guarding Tilmon, and Nathan Kolesa stepped in off the bench. He went on to score seven points. Tilmon was a force for all of a little over five minutes in the game when he was whistled for his second foul and sat for the rest of the half until the final seconds before halftime.
The Flyers started off the match on a 5-0 run, but the Tigers weathered the storm, took advantage of Tilmon being out and led 16-13 after the first quarter.
At the start of the second quarter, the Flyers went on a 7-0 run to give them a 20-16 lead. East St. Louis was led by Reyondous Estes who finished with 14 points, and Kerion Chairs added 13. However, Smith started to distribute more and found Oliver Stephen and Jack Marinko open for three-pointers. Stephen would finish with 15 points for the game and Marikno nine.
With Epenesa absent, Caleb Strohmeier had to fill the void on offense and defense in the paint as he is the tallest Tiger on the roster. He finished with nine points, grabbed 10 rebounds and also forced two steals on defense.
“It was just next guy up,” Strohmeier said. “It was just another job that I had to do and did it to the best of my abilities.”
Strohmeier showed off his offensive repertoire when took on his defender from the top of the key, pulled off a spin move and laid the ball in to increase Edwardsville’s lead during an 11-0 run.
“It’s something I practice. I was trying to be aggressive and attack the basket,” Strohmeier said.
East St. Louis battled back and trailed Edwardsville 27-26 at halftime.
The game began to pick up in the third quarter in a big way. With 2:43 to go in the third, Tilmon fouled Strohmeier off the ball and then at 2:18 he was called for a blocking foul on Smith. On his way to bench, he kicked the ball and was whistled for a technical foul, which was his fifth foul of the game. The Tigers scored four points on one trip after the technical foul and outscored the Flyers 8-4 to end the quarter on a Kolesa layup at the buzzer to lead 41-34.
“We did good when he was in, and we did good when he was out, but it was a lot easier when he was out of there because he takes up a lot of space and he’s really good,” Strohmeier said of Tilmon.
The Flyers didn’t quit and upped the tempo in the fourth quarter, but Smith took over the game. He scored 16 points in the final frame as got to the basket and charity stripe going 12-for-15 from the line and ended his dramatically with the dunk.
Edwardsville hosts O’Fallon this Friday night at home.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
