A.J. Epenesa led the Edwardsville Tigers on Friday night with 18 points. (Photo by Brent Feeney)

SEE VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH COACH WALDO BELOW:

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EDWARDSVILLE – The Southwestern Conference has, year-in and year-out, been among the best and toughest conferences, regardless of class, in the state of Illinois.

Just to win a SWC title, regardless of the sport, is a huge achievement. To go unbeaten in the league, considering how tough the league is top-to-bottom, is remarkable.

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Edwardsville had the chance to do just that going into their regular-season and conference-season finale at Lucco-Jackson Gym Friday night against Belleville East, and on top of that, it was Senior Night for the Tigers as they honored Chrys Colley, Kent Roberts, Jalyn Williams and Ryan Pacatte for their contributions to the program.

The Tigers got out of the gate fairly quickly against the Lancers, jumping out to a 7-2 lead early and holding a 22-10 lead on East at quarter time, building on it and never letting the Lancers make a serious run at them as EHS defeated East 76-55 to finish the conference schedule with a 14-0 mark, the first time the Tigers achieved that mark in 10 years; overall, the Tigers enter next week's IHSA Class 4A East St. Louis Regional at 23-4. The Lancers fell to 17-10 overall and 8-6 in the league.

“The conference is excellent,” Tiger coach Mike Waldo said. “The teams all hEdwardsville's Caleb Strohmeier looks for an open man on the court Friday night. (Photo by Brent Feeney)ave good athletes, good coaches and play good basketball, so the conference is excellent, and every game is a hard game.

“We did well tonight; we executed a lof of things good, we guarded them well. I thought Chrys Colley had a great game defensively; I thought Mark (Smith) did a great job as the lead guard, thought he did a real good job of making plays, getting us into the offense when we needed to or taking a break when we needed that.”

Given that there are no easy games in the league, every game is a difficult test for even the best teams. “We had a lot of hard games and a lot of good teams,” Waldo said. “I think out guys did a good job of preparing; we had a few things go our way, we were able to win those, so it was a great feat to win the conference,” something the Tigers have done now four times in the past five years, including a three-year run from 2012-14 before Alton grabbed the league title in 2015.

The Tigers had four players in double figures on the night; A.J. Epenesa led the way with an 18-point night, with Oliver Stephen right behind with 17 points. Colley had 14 points and Smith chipped in 10. Javon Pickett had 10 points for the Lancers, with Malachi Smith and Jordan Yates each getting eight for East.

The Tigers, the top seed in the IHSA Class 4A Regional in East St. Louis, begins the postseason at 7 p.m. Tuesday against either Belleville West or O'Fallon (whoever comes out of their first-round game Monday) in a semifinal match, with the winner moving into the March 4 championship game with a trip to the Collinsville Sectional on the line.