EDWARDSVILLE - The O'Fallon boys basketball team got off to a fast start on Friday night, taking an 11-0 lead on a pair of three-point baskets from Drew Tebbe, another from Caleb Burton and a basket from Shaun Riley II, and the quick start helped the Panthers go on to a 48-42 win over host Edwardsville in the IHSA Class 4A regional championship game played Friday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
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The Tigers played very hard throughout the entire game, coming back to within four points twice, but O'Fallon came up with the answers each time to win their first regional title since 2003. And the opening threes came from players who weren't expected to hit them.
"Getting down early was my fault," said Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas. "They had a guy shooting 16 percent from three that made two. That kind of throws your defense out of whack, and they, they had (Burton) shooting about 22 percent from three, and he made one. So you've got three guys, that's nine points right there that are a little bit uncharacteristic for us. And we spent a lot of time trying to keep it out of (Dawson Algee's) hands in the post, and that allowed (Riley) to get some. So I thought our guys really battled hard. It's just a few things schematically that hurt us early, with them making some threes, but they're good. And when you've got a good team, that means you've got other guys that can make shots at timely possessions, and I just thought they did that. It's a credit to them for making them, but I thought our guys certainly battled hard the whole time."
The Tigers kept battling and did come to withing four in each half, but the Panthers were able to make plays that allowed them to pull away. That the Tigers were able to fight back was a trademark of the club all season.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised we didn't give up," Battas said. "These guys here are the toughest guys I've been around. Nic Hemken, and Gavin Reames, and Ethan Young and those seniors, I'm not surprised at all that we didn't go away quietly. And also, that's why this is so hard for them, because it means a lot to them. They sacrificed their mind, body and soul the last four years. So I certainly was not surprised that they went down swinging there. I just wish we could have kept them from making a few of those threes early, and it doesn't change the fact how proud we are of our guys."
The defenses were stout in the opening two minutes, as both teams were able to deny the other good looks at the basket, keeping the game scoreless. Tebbe broke the ice with a three just past the two-minute mark in the game, then shortly hit another three to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead, forcing a Edwardsville time out with 5:15 left in the opening quarter. After the time out, Burton hit on another three and Riley took a good pass to score to open up the 11-0 lead for O'Fallon. But Edwardsville countered, and got threes from Jack Nafziger and Preston Weaver to cut the Panther lead to 11-6, but Riley scored from close in to make it 13-6. A pair of free throws allowed the Tigers to cut the lead to 13-8 at the end of the first quarter.
The Tigers were able to cut the lead to three at the start of the second quarter as Brennan Weller hit a pair of free throws to make it 13-10, but a Mason Blakemore three-point play made it 16-10 for O'Fallon. The two teams exchanged baskets, and an Algee basket gave the Panthers a 20-12 lead. A pair of threes from Weaver and Nafziger cut the lead to 20-18, forcing an O'Fallon time out, and a Riley basket late made the score 22-18 Panthers at halftime.
The second half started slowly, with both teams using stout defense to clamp down on scoring opportunities, but the Panthers got a three from Tebbe and a basket from Riley to open up a 27-18 advantage, forcing an Edwardsville time out with 4:27 left in the period. Young connected on a three on the side to cut the lead to 27-21, but a free throw from Riley upped the lead to 28-21 before a Hemken shot in the lane cut the lead to five once again. A pair of Blakemore free throws and a three from Chris Porter allowed O'Fallon to open up a 33-23 lead at the end of the third quarter.
A Riley basket to start the fourth quarter gave the Panthers a 35-23 edge, and after a Tiger time out, Edwardsville started to make a move. Free throws from Weller and Hemken cut the Panther lead to 35-29, and after Burton hit both ends of a one-and-one, baskets from Weaver and Hemken cut the lead to 37-33, but Blakemore hit what proved to be a key basket, scoring on a follow to make it 39-33 for O'Fallon with 2:05 to go. A Riley free-throw upped the lead to 40-33, but an undaunted Weller hit a three with 1:39 left to cut the lead to four at 40-36. From there, the Panthers outscored the Tigers from the free-throw line 8-1 to help clinch the game, as a Weller three concluded the scoring to give O'Fallon the regional title 48-42.
Hemken led the Tigers with 11 points, while Weaver had 10 points, while Weller had nine, Nafziger six, and both Young and Jalil Roundtree had three points each. Tebbe led the Panthers with 11 points, while Riley scored 10 points, Blakemore and Burton had nine points each, Algee scored four points, Porter had three points and Logan Lowery had two points.
O'Fallon is now 26-6 and advanced to the Pekin Sectional, where they will play Collinsville, who dethroned two-time IHSA state champion Belleville West in the final of the Belleville East regional 63-44, in a semifinal game Tuesday night at a neutral site in the Metro-East area to be announced by the IHSA, with the tip-off coming at 7 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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