Nic Hemken Is Key Component For Edwardsville Boys Basketball Team, Is Hard Worker Who Sets Screens And Rebounds Well For Tigers

EDWARDSVILLE - Nic Hemken has been a key player for the Edwardsville boys basketball team in the 2019-2020 season.

Hemken is a player who sets the screens, rebounds underneath when the Tigers need it, and makes a positive contribution in every Tiger game. He did so again this past week as the Tigers went 2-2, defeating Freeburg and Highland on the road, but losing to O'Fallon and East St. Louis at home. A game scheduled for Friday night at home against Alton was postponed due to the freezing rain that passed through the St. Louis area.

Last Friday night against the Panthers, the Tiger defense did a yeoman's job in keeping O'Fallon's top scorers under their season average, but Edwardsville lost to the Panthers 49-40 in a game that was much closer than the final score would indicate. The Tigers were one or two possessions away from possibly taking the lead, but O'Fallon hit their free throws in the stretch run to put the game away.

"Our game plan worked out pretty well," Hemken said in a postgame interview following the game against the Panthers. "We held their leading scorer to four points, and most of the other guys that are getting most of their points for them didn't score much tonight, so we made their other guys beat us, and they made some shots, so credit is due to them. I'll give it to them."

It was important to try to slow down O'Fallon, who's three leading scorers combined average almost 30 points-per-game, and the plan worked, as the Tigers were able to slow the Panthers down, and it helped give Edwardsville a shot at winning the game.

"We really just tried to slow them down, and make them play at our pace," Hemken said. "Great effort tonight, we just came up a little short. You look at it, that's a closer game than it looks. We lost by nine, I think that's a two or three-point game, so I'm excited. I can't wait to play them next time."

Hemken felt that Edwardsville had a chance to win, and is confident in his team, a hard-working group that's starting to come together at the right time.

"I was really confident," Hemken said. "We've got a good group of guys here, we work hard, we work our butts off in practice, and everyone's starting to mesh, really coming together, and I think you're about to see us take off."

And when the Tigers meet up with O'Fallon next month, the storyline could very well be different.

"I can't wait to go back and play at the Panther Dome," Hemken said.

The Tigers won a close game at Freeburg Jan.11 52-48, then won at Highland 63-25 on Jan. 14 before losing a very close game to East Side 39-35 at home Jan. 15, with some more big opponents coming up. Hemken feels the approach to the upcoming schedule will be the same as their approach to the past week's games.

"You know, we're just going to keep playing hard, keep doing what we do," Hemken said. "We're going to keep making shots, just what we do. We've got to go beyond whatever we can do. We've got to make sure everyone's healthy, and just keep playing well."

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