EDWARDSVILLE - After falling behind early 10-3, the Edwardsville boys basketball team went on a 13-2 run to end the first quarter, then had a 7-0 run at the end of the second quarter, and gradually pulled away in the second half to take a 63-42 Southwestern Conference win in the Tigers' home opener Tuesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
Senior Brennan Weller led the way for Edwardsville with 20 points, his second straight 20-plus point night, in helping the Tigers go to 2-0 on the season in another great team win. Edwardsville won with great team defense that transitioned into baskets offensively.
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"We're not very big, but I felt we did a good job getting into passing lanes, and turning turnovers into easy baskets," said Tigers coach Dustin Battas, "and I think that Shaun Pacette being able to guard their post guy one-on-on one was excellent, because we were able then to get those guys into passing lanes. So i think it was a big part of the game, those easy baskets into transition."
Unlike the season opener at Belleville West, where the Tigers led from start to finish, Edwardsville fell behind early, but bounced back to go on the run in the first quarter to take the lead.
"Yeah, part of that was because we hadn't gotten to see them play yet," Battas said, "so I told the guys that start for them was kind of on me. We had a few new guys who made some threes, and we didn't know what they could do, and had a couple of balls just bounce their way. But our guys are competitive, and those veteran, experience guys have been here before, they know it's a 32-minute game, and I thought we really handled that well, and just continued to follow the game plan and stick to it, and ended up having the lead at the end of the first quarter."
Everyone on the Tigers made contributions throughout the game, and in the second quarter run, the bench players made key contributions to keep Edwardsville in control of the game.
"I thought we got some great contributions from out bench guys," Battas said. "Gabe James and Hayden Moore came in and did great. I really think that Caleb Valentine making a couple of threes in the first quarter helped us. It stretched their defense out a little bit. I thought Jalil Roundtree was excellent with the ball, in getting the ball in transition, in making the right read and the right play, assisting those guys on those easy baskets."
With attendance being strictly limited because of COVID-19, the bench players created the atmosphere of support that the Tigers would normally get from their home crowd, and it's that family-style togetherness that remains a team trademark.
"Yeah, we pride ourselves on our guys, and their care for each other," Battas said, "as weird as that sounds. Our guys like each other, their supportive of each other, they know this is a team sport, and our older guys, that get to play the games a lot, do a great job of making those other guys feel valuable, and like they're part of the team. So that's great. That's going to be big all year. But our guys practice hard, all 24 of us practice hard. So, it's good to see they're all enthusiastic, and they all feel good after a win, not just the seven or eight guys who play all the minutes."
Dashawn Mosely and Valentine traded threes to start the game off, but then the Panthers scored the next seven points, a three by Chris Porter and baskets from Mosely and Kendall Walker gave O'Fallon a 10-3 lead just after three minutes. After a Weller free throw, the Panthers extended their lead to 12-4 on another Porter basket, but back-to-back threes from both James and Preston Weaver pulled Edwardsville back to within 12-10, tying the game on a goaltending call that gave Weaver another basket, then got a pair of great baskets from Weller inside to give the Tigers a 16-12 lead at quarter time.
Moore hit a three to start the second quarter, but baskets from Jalen Smith and Latrell Bonner enabled the Panthers to cut the lead down to 19-16. After the Tigers went back up to 25-18, a three from Jeremiah Tate and a three-point play from Porter pulled O'Fallon back to within 25-24. Edwardsville went on its 7-0 run afterwards, with a pair of free throws and a driving basket from Weller, and a three before the buzzer from Valentine gave the Tigers a 32-24 lead at the interval.
The Tigers kept the momentum going at the start of the second half, scoring the first five points to extend the edge to 37-24 before the Panthers got their first points of the half, a pair of free throws from Mosely. The two teams exchanged baskets before baskets from Weaver, with a basket from James in between, gave the Tigers a 45-28 lead. A Pacette three, a Porter basket and a free throw from Dawson Algee made the score 48-31 for Edwardsville after three quarters.
In the final quarter, the Tigers continued to pull away, outscoring the Panthers 21-11, getting key baskets from Weller and Roundtree in the period, then finished with baskets from Ryan Hampton and Beau Brandt to clinch the 63-42 final.
Beside Weller, Valentine had 10 points for the Tigers, with Moore adding on nine, Weaver had seven points, James and Roundtree had five points each, Pacette had three points, and both Brandt and Hampton scored two points apiece.
The Panthers were led by Porter's 12 points, while Mosely had 10 points, Smith had six points, Bonner came up with five points, Walker scored four points, Tate had three points and Algee had a single point.
The Tigers improved to 2-0 on the season, and host Belleville East in a big conference matchup Thursday night, with the tip coming at 7:30 p.m. Battas is looking ahead to the game, and knows the Tigers will be ready to go.
"I think Belleville East has a chance to be the best team in the league," Battas said, "so it's a big game on Thursday, it's a quick turnaround; they were off tonight, so they'll have four or five practices to get ready for us, so we'll do our best to prepare in one day, and we've got mature guys who are good at that. So we'll do our best to practice tomorrow, and hopefully, be competitive on Thursday."
Along with everyone else in the state, Battas feels great to be back at it with his team.
"It is," Battas said. "Especially at home, great to be back, and have our parents be able to come and see their sons play, and a great first home win in the Southwestern Conference."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
