LADUE – They say the third time’s the charm.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
That was the case for the Edwardsville Tigers who won the MICDS Don Maurer Holiday Invitational, defeating the Ladue Rams in a thrilling game by a score of 71-69.
It was the third straight year the Tigers made the trip to the tournament. In year one they won the consolation bracket. In year two, Edwardsville went 2-2 in the tourney taking sixth.
“This is a big tournament, and we have a lot of respect for the teams here. So, for us to win is certainly an achievement that we’re proud of,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said.
“We like representing the Southwestern Conference over here, we think St. Louis has really good basketball. It’s a big win for us. We’re proud to be champions and don’t take anything for granted. We know it’s really hard.”
The Tigers improved to 11-1 on the season as they won their seventh straight game. Edwardsville came into the tournament as the No. 2 seed and defeated Ritenour (64-32), Francis Howell (66-40), and Kirkwood (71-57) along the way to the championship game.
They faced the top-seeded Ladue Rams in the championship game and both teams came out firing.
Iose Epenesa put the first points on the board for the Tigers, but Ladue’s Will Becker put in a 3-pointer to take the lead. Although Ladue battled back at times, this was its only lead of the game.
Bryce Pryor’s 3-pointer sparked a nine-point run that saw the Tigers take an 11-3 lead. They would go on to lead 23-13 after the first quarter.
Herbert Martin started the game out on fire, scoring 11 of his team’s first-quarter points. Epenesa got to work early as well with six points in the opening eight minutes.
The Tigers did much of the same in the second quarter, opening it up on a 10-5 run to increase the lead to 33-18. They eventually led 41-26 at halftime.
It was a good thing that Edwardsville secured that 15-point lead because Ladue would outscore them in both the third and fourth quarters.
“We knew that. I think they were down early in the tournament, and they’re going to keep fighting,” Battas said.
“Coach [Chad] Anderson, we have a lot of respect for him, he does a tremendous job. He’s built a winning culture there. It kind of reminds me of how coach [Mike] Waldo established our program years ago,” Battas continued. “Every year, [Ladue] is competitive, whether they graduate guys or not. So, we knew at halftime it was going to be a fight.”
Waldo coached at Edwardsville for 31 years and ended his time there with an ominous 666 wins and 225 losses, having coached the Tigers to multiple 30-win seasons.
As for Anderson and the Rams, they haven’t had a losing season since 2008-09. This season, they opened up to a 9-0 mark before Monday’s loss.
And the Rams were doing their best to keep that undefeated streak alive in the second half of Monday’s championship. They outscored the Tigers 23-17 in the third quarter and 20-13 in the fourth, 43-30 overall in the second half, but Ladue could not succumb to its 15-point halftime deficit.
It was a game that felt like a middle of January-early February Southwestern Conference matchup, one that went down to the wire.
“Our league is competitive, so I think a lot of our guys have been through the fire,” Battas said. “They know the game’s going to be tough. It doesn’t make it any easier, but we’re not as surprised.”
The Tigers were able to get out to that halftime lead because of the defensive work they did against Ladue’s top three scorers Jack Edgerton, Trisiah Edwards, and Becker. The three combined for 23 first-half points, but they would end with a combined 55 points.
Edgerton, who came into the game averaging 20.3 points per game, scored a team-high 23 points. Becker ended up with 18, and Edwards had 14.
But those three were outshone by yet another stellar performance from Martin.
He ended up with 31 points, going 12-for-15 from the free-throw line.
“It’s Herb [Martin’s] time. I’ve said that. Herb has really matured into I think the best point guard in the St. Louis area,” Battas said. “He does a lot of work behind the scenes, his preparation, before what people see on the court, he’s already put in hours. We’re happy for Herb, he’s certainly the engine that makes our team go.”
“This is the third or fourth game where in my head I think he probably has 17 or 18 points then you guys tell me he has 30 or 31,” Battas joked. “He just makes it look easy.”
Miccah Butler added 15 points, Epenesa had 10, and Pryor had nine. Martin and Butler were both named to the all-tournament team. They both lead an Edwardsville offense that averages 63.5 points per night.
The Tigers were scheduled to have a week’s time off before jumping back into Southwestern Conference action against East St. Louis but instead picked up a non-conference home game against Dieterich, one of the top IHSA Class 1A schools, out of the Effingham area.
Edwardsville will host the 11-2 Movin Marrons on Thursday, January 2 at 7 p.m.
More like this:
