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EDWARDSVILLE – The Edwardsville High boys basketball team came close in their Southwestern Conference opener Tuesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym, but the bounces didn’t go their way at key moments.
And it helped Belleville East go on to a 43-34 win over the Tigers. The Tigers played very well throughout the game, but the Lancers were able to hit key shots to help them to the win.
“Every time we cut it to two or three, they made a tough shot in the lane, or they made a three,” said Edwardsville coach Dustin Battas, “they did a good job of getting into the lane, drawing fouls. We’ll keep working on that stuff. We’ll work on guarding that stuff better. I am proud of the guys there in the fourth quarter. They kept fighting, kept battling; you could tell that it meant something to our guys, which I think is important.”
Especially in the fourth quarter, the Tigers executed their offense well and got the open shots they were looking for. But the shots rimmed out and didn’t go through.
“I really thought we executed a couple of things really well out of timeouts,” Battas said. “We needed a three, and we had a couple of solid looks out of bounds, and got really good looks for the guys we wanted to get them, and they just rimmed out. The execution was good, and we’ll just get maybe a little bit better on some of those little mishaps here and there. But the good news is that we get to play them again, and we get to play on Friday. And there’s nothing that I’m disappointed in; in fact, we really tried, and we’ve got a lot of guys doing their jobs, things that are new for them. So, we’re down a little bit, and we really wanted to win that one. We had a chance to do it, but we will get practicing tomorrow, and try to figure out a way to beat the (Collinsville) Kahoks.”
The game started out close as both sides felt each other out. Isaiah May hit the Lancers’ first three of the night to give them a 5-4 lead before Jared Adams scored off a rebound to make it 7-4 for East. A Lavontas Hairston three tied the game, and the Tigers went back ahead on a Nic Hemken basket, but a late three from Braxton Stacker gave East a 10-9 lead after the first quarter.
It stayed that way through the first part of the second period before a free throw from Brennan Weller tied the game again at 10-10. Both teams then traded the lead through the rest of the quarter, the Tigers mostly led by Malik Robinson, who scored four of his 15 points in the period to twice give Edwardsville the lead. A Bryson Ivy three shortly before the buzzer gave East a 20-18 lead at halftime.
Robinson played his best game of the season, taking charge of the Tiger offense and playing aggressively.
“Yeah, I really thought this was Malik’s best game of the season, and I told him that,” Battas said. “He just did a really good job of facilitating and being aggressive when he had to, but not taking shots out of control. And with our substitution pattern late, with the injuries and foul trouble, he had to do a little more, maybe a little bit out of our structure. Sometimes, he had to just go make a basket. We just try to give him space to do that, and so, I thought he had an excellent game. He played all 32 minutes, and they tried to pressure him, and that got him all 32 minutes, and I thought he did really well.”
The Tigers also played the second half without Jaylon Tuggle, one of Edwardsville’s most durable players, who had a knee problem flare up.
“Jaylon’s had a knee injury, a little bit of tendinitis he’s had,” Battas said, “and it flared up on him at halftime; he told me that he couldn’t go. And like I said, it’s kind of uncharacteristic of Jaylon; he’s a pretty tough guy. So I figured that his knee must be really bothering him. We’ll get it looked at here, and get it checked out. But certainly, you take a guy out of the lineup like him, and it hurts you both ways. It hurts you on defense, because of his flexibility on defense to guard multiple positions, and having another scoring guard in the game.
“But you know, I’m really proud of those guys at the end,” Battas continued, “for how they competed,”
The lead continued to change hands early in the third quarter, but in the middle came a stretch where the Lancers had four straight three-point play opportunities, getting three baskets from Ivy and another from Stacker, who converted his chance. The 9-2 run for the Lancers during that time extended the East lead to 32-24 before Robinson’s drive to the hoop cut the lead to 32-26 at three-quarter time.
Robinson hit a three at the start of the fourth quarter to cut the lead down to 32-29, but Kienen Waller countered with his own three-ball to push the lead back to six. Robinson then drove his way into the lane to make it 35-31, and a Hairston three made it a one-point game for the Lancers at 35-34. Ivy then hit both ends of a one-and-one to up the East advantage back to three, but Weller missed a shot to tie the game. Edwardsville got the ball back, called timeout, and set up a play for Weller, but his three-ball went in and out. Afterward, Hairston made a great play to save a ball from going out, but Stacker stole the ball right back for the Lancers. East ran some of the clock off before May scored to make it 39-34, and four free throws from Waller made the final 43-34.
For the game, Ivy led the Lancers with 17 points, while Ivy added 13. Robinson’s 15 led the Tigers.
Although the Tigers scored the 34 points, their shooting percentage is up, and there are definitely good signs on the horizon.
“Yeah, I do think there are definite signs of improvement,” Battas said, “and we’ve made some adjustments to the offense, and we’ll continue to do so as guys show us they can do certain things. But it is getting better. I think this week, it’s better than last week, and next week, it’ll be better than this week, and we’ve got good guys who like to practice, and so, we’ll keep getting better on offense. I’m honestly not worried about our point totals; I know people probably look at them and think so. But I know those shots are going to fall, and we’re getting open shots with guys who want to take them. And we’ll continue to get better.”
The Tigers travel to Collinsville Friday night to play the Kahoks in a 7:30 tip, then host defending IHSA Class 4A champions Belleville West next Tuesday, also with a 7:30 tip.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
