ALTON – Three seasons ago, Alton won just four basketball games. Fast forward to present day, and the Redbirds are now regional champions.
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Alton hosted an IHSA Class 4A regional championship Friday night against Southwestern Conference rival Edwardsville. The Redbirds got off to a nice start and never trailed, going on to win 55-47.
That 4-23 season was Hassani Elliot and this year’s senior class’s freshman season. The school district hired Dylan Dudley in the 2022-23 season and the rebuild began. A 6-25 season followed.
Then came last year, a complete 180-degree turn, a 17-15 season, the program’s first winning record since the 2018-19 season, also its last regional title.
After defeating Edwardsville on Friday, the Redbirds improved to 26-6, their best record since a 27-5 run in 2014-15.
“He really turned the program around,” Elliot said of Dudley. “We bought into what he was saying. He’s like a second dad to us.”
“It means a lot,” Elliot continued. “We’ve been getting beat on since my freshman year. We’ve built it from the ground up, and it just means a lot.”
That’s why it meant so much to Dudley and the team when they won a regional title and got to cut down the nets on their home court.
“That’s damn cool,” Dudley said. “I’ve had the opportunity to be on some teams that have won some championships. So has JaQuail [Townser], so has [John] Steen-O, and so has [Monty] Lowe. But we just wanted this so much for these kids. So much for this city, so much for this school, this community, the teachers, the administrators, all the way down the list. We just had a selflessness about us, and it perpetuated to our kids.”
Alex Macias traded baskets with Miccah Butler to start the game before Alton went on a seven-point run. Elliot scored again followed by four straight points from Semaj Stampley, including the game’s first three-pointer. Macias split a trip at the foul line to make it 9-2 with 3:48 left in the first quarter.
Alton led 18-9 after the opening eight minutes.
Alton kept the momentum in the second when it went on a similar 7-2 run. All seven points came from Jamarion Green, most of them while Iose Epenesa was off the court and in foul trouble. Green widened the margin to 25-11.
“He’s going to get some cheap fouls because his motor runs,” Dudley said on Green. “He competes at such a high, high level. He believes he can get every rebound. You don’t get 14 rebounds against Collinsville or 15 rebounds tonight if you don’t believe that you’re going to get them. When [Edwardsville] kind of started pushing, he made those shots that kind of staggered them again.”
Alton led 30-17 at halftime.
“They played really well, and they were really prepared,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said. “We had a hard time handling the ball. I thought two-fold in the first half, turnovers, and then also giving up offensive rebounds. I think at halftime, if our numbers are right, we gave them about 20 extra possessions. Nine or 10 rebounds and nine or 10 turnovers. That’s a credit to them for playing really hard and being ready to go.”
Whether it was errant passes, travels, or missed boards, the Tigers didn’t have much of the ball in the first half, and it cost them.
“I just thought that all those mistakes against a really good team are really hard to overcome, on the road, in the regional championship,” Battas said.
The Tigers outscored Alton 30-25 in the second half, and it could have been more. Edwardsville missed seven free throws in the third quarter. They only trailed by nine after three quarters at 41-30.
The Tigers nearly got back into it to begin the fourth when they went on a 10-4 run to make it 45-40 before calling a timeout with 4:35 left in the game. Those third-quarter free throws could have given them the lead or at the very least a one-possession game.
“We know that,” Battas said. “I don’t bring that up to them now because we’re hurting, but we know what goes into winning basketball. It’s limiting turnovers, field-goal percentage, and making free throws. We’ve done a good job this year of checking those boxes off, but tonight they made it hard.”
“We had to punch them in the mouth,” Dudley said. “They haven’t been behind in a long, long time. They hadn’t lost a game in a long time. So, when we punched them, they got a little rattled. We kind of staggered them.”
The Tigers entered Friday’s regional championship on a 12-game win streak. They split the two regular-season meetings with Alton. The Redbirds won in Alton back on Dec. 6 and then Edwardsville defended its home court winning on a last-second basket from Herbert Martin to win 53-52 on Jan. 17.
Edwardsville finishes the season as Southwestern Conference champions and a 28-3 record.
“Obviously really proud of our guys, we went down fighting,” Battas said. “That was a tough game. [Alton] played at a high, high level and are deserving of a regional championship.”
Martin led all scorers on the night with 22 points. Bryce Pryor had eight points, Epenesa had seven, Rowan Weller had six, and Butler had four.
Dudley hopes Friday’s regional plaque is the first of many pieces of hardware to be earned in his time with the Redbirds.
“I want this program to be built on postseason championships, and I want this team to be built on sectional championships and giving ourselves a chance to win the biggest trophy of them all,” he said.
“Not to downgrade the Southwestern Conference, we were trying hard as hell to win the Southwestern Conference, but I told the boys, you can win the conference and not be guaranteed to play on. If you win the regional championship, you’re guaranteed one more day of practice, and that was our mindset going into it. Our kids just believed.”
A team effort saw the scoring come from everyone. Elliot led with 12 points, Stampley had 11, Green had 10, Ryan Howard had nine, Kobe Taylor had six, Macias had five, and Oliver Williams had two.
Alton learned a lot about Edwardsville in the two regular-season meetings, but Dudley wanted to make sure his coaching staff got the recognition.
“The job that JaQuail Townser did scouting Edwardsville and getting our guys prepared, the details that he was talking to me about and what he was able to convey to our kids during our practice yesterday and on film. I’ve been doing this for 22 years and I’ve never seen an assistant coach give a better scouting report than he did to our kids. He’s pretty much watched every game they played,” Dudley said.
That was translated to the court. Simply put, Alton made the Tigers look uncomfortable by playing from behind, which they don’t do often.
“We just came with energy; we didn’t overthink it,” Stampley said. “We didn’t get too much into the conference win, or the social media blah, blah, blah. We just focused, did our job, and won the game.”
“We practice hard, and if you win at practice, you win the game,” Green said. “That’s what coach told us, and we did it. We won regionals.”
“That’s our rival, to come out here and beat them on our home court in a regional championship means the world,” Elliot said. “I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with no other team.”
The regional title is Alton’s 23rd in program history. Former coach Eric Smith won the last three titles in his seven-year stint with the Redbirds from 2012-2019.
“What a special feeling for our kids and our program,” Dudley said. “Just want to keep it going right?”
The journey continues on Tuesday, March 4 when Alton takes on top-seeded Quincy (29-3) in the Collinsville Sectional semifinals at 6 p.m. Normal Community and Rock Island play in the other semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The sectional championship game is on Friday, March 7 at 7 p.m.
“I’ve thought about that inbounds play for 365 days or whatever it is,” Dudley said. “We were one inbounds play away from winning that game. It’s going to be a special battle.”
Quincy ended Alton’s season last year in dramatic fashion. The Redbirds are looking for some revenge.
“We’re ready. We’ve been waiting for this rematch all year,” Stampley said. “They got us last season and we’re ready for them.”
“I promised the seniors last year when we lost by one that we’d see them again, and now we gave ourselves a chance to do that,” Elliot said.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to get one more chance at them,” Dudley said. “We’re going to have to play good, have good preparation, going to have to be tough, play physical, play Alton basketball.”
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