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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville got off to a hot start Friday night.
As in a 22-0 start. Against Belleville West, who had handed the Tigers their only defeat of the season so far the first weekend of December.
The Tigers used that quick start, led by the first of four A.J. Epenesa dunks on the night, to get a 76-49 win over the Maroons Friday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym, improving themselves to 18-1 overall and 7-1 in the Southwestern Conference; the Maroons fell to 11-7 overall, 5-3 in the SWC.
The game was also notable for Oliver Stephen scoring his 1,000th career point for the Tigers with a three-point shot with 3:58 left in the game. Stephen ended the contest with 17 points and six rebounds; Mark Smith led the Tigers with 23 points and seven rebounds while Epenesa had 16 points and 15 rebounds.
Of his team's fast start, “they're hard to guard; those two big guys (Tyler Dancy and Eric Liddell) are good and they've got good guard play,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “It was one of those things early in the game when the shots they got, they didn't make and we did a good job of limiting their second shots. That's how we got the lead big early.
“It was just one of those things; sometimes, when you get open looks and you don't make them and it kind of snowballs on you sometimes. That helped us get ahead early.”
“It was a disappointing start for us,” said Maroon coach Joe Muniz. “It's not like we didn't have the shots early in the game; we rushed them and just couldn't get them to fall. I knew they would come out firing on all cylinders – they're very good here at home. Give them all the credit; I thought they were well-prepared. When they had shots, they made them; when we had them, we didn't.”
Perhaps an indication of how the night was going to go for the Maroons came on the very first score of the game; Epenesa, back in the Tiger lineup after playing in two football all-star games in Texas and Hawaii earlier in the month, got loose quickly and got a pass for a slam-dunk, the first of four he had on the night.
“I told our guys in the locker room Epenesa's been in Hawaii for two weeks and he looked like he hasn't missed a beat,” Muniz said. “Our guys were prepared, but they're 16-, 17-, 18-year-old kids and the first play of the game typified how we started the game; we didn't move, and to get that easy of a shot on the first play of the game, it's mind-boggling.”
“It's good to have A.J. back,” Waldo said, “not only because A.J. plays good, A.J. is such a good person and such a good teammate. He is just uplifting for everybody around him, and we're very happy he's back. We're happy for him that he's done so well in football and was able to play in those all-star games; we're happy for him.
“He's a good player, no doubt about that, but what a good teammate and good person. He is such an uplifting person and we're happy that he's back in that regard. You couldn't ask for a better teammate or a better guy.”
The Maroons were led Keith Randolph's 14 points, with Liddell adding 10. Jack Marinko had eight points for the Tigers; Caleb Strohmeier had seven points; Jackson Best had three points and Zach Doornick rounded out the scoring with two points.
EHS travels to St. Louis to take on Gateway STEM Tuesday night, then takes on East St. Louis on the road Feb. 3.
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