EDWARDSVILLE - Alton High School senior forward Moory Woods and his Redbirds begin post-season play Tuesday night at Edwardsville.
Woods led the way for the Redbirds on Feb. 6 against the Edwardsville Tigers, scoring 19 points and helping his team come from behind in the fourth quarter to force overtime, but the Redbirds lost to Edwardsville 59-56 in overtime. If both Alton and Edwardsville win in the regional, there would be a regional championship matchup on Friday between the two teams.
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As the regular season ended last week, Woods was the leading scorer on the team, averaging 13.3 points-per-game, along with averaging 6.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists-per-game.
It was one of the best games of the year against Edwardsville, and Woods felt that Alton executed well, but also saw some room for improvement in a few areas.
The Redbirds came from nine points down late to force the overtime period against Edwardsville on an Andrew Jones basket in the final minute, and both Woods and Jones were Alton's two best players on the night.
"You know, we have all faith in each other," Woods said, "and I feel like as a team, we come in and we trust each other to make the big plays during those stretches where we feel we need something big, we go to our big guys that we believe in."
Woods thought Jones had the hot hand during the stretch, and in fact, took the last shot at the end of overtime that would have tied the game again, but the ball just barely bounced away off the rim.
Woods feels he's played well, and he does whatever needs to be done to help the Redbirds find success and win games.
"I would say I do what I need to do for the team," Woods said. "I could be doing more, and I'm going to continue to do more, but right now, I feel like we're still learning and we're still trying to do to be able to do what we need to do as a team, take over down that stretch for the playoffs."
The Redbirds finished the regular season with a 13-17 record, and was set to play O'Fallon in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 4A regional at Edwardsville on Tuesday.
"We want to finish up strong," Woods said.
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