COLLINSVILLE - Junior forward Isayah Kloster led Edwardsville with 13 points, but was the only Tiger in double figures as Edwardsville was held to single digits in all four quarters in Collinsville's 41-29 win over the Tigers in a Southwestern Conference boys basketball game Tuesday night at Vergil Fletcher Gym.
The Kahoks jumped to a good lead in the first quarter and made it stand up. The Tigers did play well, but couldn't hit enough baskets to tighten the gap.
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"Our guys did a lot of things well," said Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas. "Collinsville is a tough team to play against, but we kept it competitive. We just had a hard time making some shots."
The Tigers were able to execute their game plan well, but the lack of shooting success again hurt Edwardsville.
"I thought we ran our set plays well," Battas said, "Alec Marchetto and Isayah Kloster made some big shots for us. Our guys fought hard and I think we're playing much better than we were a month ago."
The lack of success shooting is something the Tigers work on in practice every day, and Battas thinks it's a matter of time before the shots begin to fall.
"Our guys work on shooting every day in practice," Battas said, "and I thought we did a good job of taking what the defense gave us."
The Kahoks led all the way through, holding a 15-7 advantage after the first quarter, expanding the lead to 25-14 at halftime, then led 33-23 after the third period, outscoring the Tigers in the fourth 8-6 to take the win.
Tray Swygeart led Collinsville with 17 points, while Nick Horras added 12 points, Devin Davis hit for eight points and Jake Wilkinson scored four points. Along with Kloster's 13 points for the Tigers, Marchetto scored six points, Malik Allen hit for five points, A.J. Tillman and Zach Hoffmann each had two points and Jordan Bush had a single point.
The Kahoks are now 23-5 and host East St. Louis on Thursday night, then conclude the regular season at Alton on Friday night, while Edwardsville goes to 10-18 and finishes the regular season at Belleville West on Friday night, with all games starting at 7:30 p.m. Battas knows that his team will be ready to go in the regular-season finale in preparation for the upcoming IHSA Class 4A playoffs.
"We're out to just keep getting better every day," Battas said, "and play our best game on Friday night."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
