CENTRALIA - Facing off against not only one of the best players in the state of Illinois, as well as one of the best teams is a tall task.
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The Alton Redbirds gave everything the Belleville West Maroons could handle early on. However, the height and length of the Maroons proved to be too much for the Redbirds as they fell 72-53 in the semifinals of the Centralia Holiday Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
Alton goes to 9-2 and will play Marist at 7:30 p.m. in the third-place game. West improves to 11-1 and advances to the championship against Champaign Central following the third-place match.
“It put us in quite a bind. Obviously, in the first half we played pretty well, I thought we were in a position to have a chance to be successful, but obviously we gotta work so hard constantly,” Alton head coach Eric Smith said. “It felt like we got a stop and then the ball bounces around, and they get an offensive rebound. We gotta do a little bit better job and getting a body on somebody. We can do some things a little bit better, but our kids competed. They played their buts off today.”
E.J. Liddell, a 2019 four-star recruit (Rivals.com) scored 22 points alongside senior guard Malachi Smith to lead the Maroons. The six-foot-seven center was not only a menace in the paint on offense but also a rim-protector as he usually is on a nightly basis. Fellow forward Keith Randolph Jr. was just as active as Liddell was at crashing the boards and blocking shots on defense. He finished with 11 points.
“Those are two really good kids. Not too many people around have two post players that are as big and as physical, and as athletic as those two kids,” Smith said. “Then you throw in some fairly long and athletic guards.”
Donovan Clay stands at six-foot-three, and his job was to guard the taller and stronger Liddell. Despite the difference in size, Smith applauded Clay for his performance.
[Liddell’s] a pretty special basketball player. Donovan’s giving up however many inches and however many pounds. Donovan did a heck of a job on him today and did exactly what we asked of him to do,” Smith said. “Make him take tough shots, but there [were] a few times where [Liddell] did take shots, but we didn’t finish out the possession by getting a rebound, so he had to work extra hard to try and do it again. That’s a commendable effort by Don and the other kids to guard the way they did.”
Clay put in a substantial shift on defense and was just as efficient on offense. He scored 13 of his 15 points in the first half, including three triples. Malik Smith led Alton in points with 19 and drilled three trey’s as well.
West made life difficult for Alton on the boards, but the Redbirds answered that by stretching the Maroons zone defense with smart, quick passes. Those led to baskets from downtown and from close-range.
The Maroons led 20-16 after the first quarter, and after they went up 26-16, the Redbirds went on a 16-6 run. A big part of that was their execution in their transition offense by Kevin Caldwell, Malik Smith, and two three’s from Clay.
Down 34-29 to start the second half, Alton began to lose their stroke from the outside, and they did well at attacking the basket, Liddell and Randolph Jr. were right there to block most layup attempts.
“We had to expend so much energy to try to do some other things to stay in the game that took away from our shooting at the end,” Smith said.
The Redbirds were forced to foul quite often, and the Maroons profited for the most part going 15-of-20 from the charity stripe. When they weren’t getting fouled they continued to get to the basket. As a team West missed quite a lot of shots close-range shots, but they managed to rebound them and took advantage of their second and third chances. West outscored Alton 22-12 in the third quarter, which gave them a 56-44 lead and continued their dominance in the fourth.
“This is what we expected of them. That’s kind of what the message was at the beginning of the season. We have a great group of kids. They practice hard, play hard and they’re skilled. They’ve met that challenge,” Smith said. “The parity and the competitiveness has been pretty good for us, but we hope that’s the way it’s going to be.”
After the third-place game wraps up, Alton will meet West again next Friday at home. Both teams are 5-0 in Southwestern Conference play, and conference title hopes will be potentially on the line.
