EDWARDSVILLE – O'Fallon boys basketball coach Brian Muniz described Friday night's Southwestern Conference game with Edwardsville, in part, as “a chess match in the first half”.
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Then came the third quarter, where the Tigers scored the first nine points of the period while expanding a 34-30 lead at the half to 53-37 at three-quarter time.
Checkmate.
That third term proved to be the difference as EHS went on to record a 73-58 win over the Panthers at Lucco-Jackson Gym to raise their record to 13-1 overall and 5-1 in the league; OTHS fell to 9-5 overall, 3-3 in the SWC.
“They did a good job with their defense,” said EHS coach Mike Waldo. “I thought a the game went on, we did a better job of seeing what was open against that, and I thought our guys made some good plays with the ball.
“I thought Oliver (Stephen) had a great game; that guy is a hustling machine. I thought Jack Marinko did a great job with the ball tonight; he made some good decisions, and I thought that was a big part of the game.”
A.J. Epenesa was absent Friday night; he was in San Antonio making final preparations for today's U.S. Army All-American Bowl football game; it opened up opportunities for Nathan Kolesa and Jackson Best. “Kolesa and Jackson did a good job on defense,” Waldo said, “and Nathan does a good job of getting open; we did a good job of finding him and we did a good job of finishing. He does a good job for us.”
With Epenesa absent, O'Fallon was doing what it could to hamper Smith and Stephen and the Panthers could only slow them down; Smith wound up with 34 points on the night while Stephen knocked down four three-balls en route to a 13-point night.
“Mark, Oliver and A.J. - those guys are the best teammates you could ask for,” Waldo said. “They just play to win, and if they're taken away, they pass, and they never, ever consider how many shots they've got, how many points they've got – they just play.”
“Obviously, when they go to a spread offense, it's tough to stop,” Muniz said. “It was a four-point game (at the half) and it ballooned to 11 or 13 and we're chasing them the rest of the game. It's not a basketball game we like to play; we like to get after it, but when you're chasing the entire game – I mean, they're such a good team and it's tough when you dig a hole against Edwardsville like that.
“(Smith's) a matchup nightmare; he's tall, but he is thick. We had trouble guarding him early and they kept posting him up; in that offense, he got some space and he can do some things; you end up fouling him and he knocks down his free throws. He's just a complete player.”
Muniz was happy with the Panthers' effort. “I'm pretty pleased with the way we played,” Muniz said. “You get down in a hole and now you're chasing them the rest of the way; that's not to our advantage, that's for sure. It was a chess match; we spread them out and tried to attack the basket without Epenesa in there, and then they came back and posted up Smith.
'It was a chess match that first half with them, no doubt.”
Kolesa chipped in 11 points for Edwardsville and Caleb Strohmeier nine; the Panthers were led by Ryan Fulton's 17 points with Deion Norfleet adding 10 points and Jarvious Smith six.
The Tigers dropped the curtain-raising JV game 57-41 to the Panthers; they take on Alton Jan. 13 as part of a girls-boys doubleheader in Alton, with the girls game tipping at 6 p.m., with the boys game to follow.
