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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's boys basketball team got out of the gates pretty quick Tuesday night.
So quick that the Tigers had gotten off to a big lead before Gateway STEM of St. Louis' Public High League may have known what to do to counter it.
The Tigers ran out to a 24-3 lead at quarter time and were never seriously threatened as EHS came away with a 71-35 win over the Jaguars at Lucco-Jackson Gym Tuesday night; Edwardsville ran its record to 5-1 on the year wit the win, while the Jaguars fell to 2-4.
“I thought we did a good job of making them shoot hard shots and then we did a good job of getting the rebound,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “That's a pretty good combination on defense; we got a good shot at the basket almost every time down the floor, so I thought we did a lot of things well.
“Our guys have been working hard and we've been improving. I think our guys have been working hard and I think we reaped the benefits of that tonight; we just want to keep getting better every day, just keep having practice, just keep preparing for whoever we're playing. If you just keep putting those things together, that's how you get better.”
The opportunity for some of the reserve players to show what they could do came in the final quarter. “Our guys practice well,” Waldo said. “We have a lot of guys who practice well – that really helps us. When they're able to get into a game, that's good too. (Cole) Scarborough and Craig (Roberts) – those guys do good for us; they're good teammates, they're good practice players – they do really good.
“Seeing them get to play tonight was really good and they guys played good; they both really can play.”
That the Tigers had a big win after getting wins in close games so far this year was a good thing for EHS, Waldo felt. “We've had a lot of close games and we've been able to make some plays to win close games,” Waldo said. “This was a good win for us.”
Edwardsville was led once again by Jack Marinko and Caleb Strohmeier; Marinko had 30 points on the night and Strohmeier 28; R.J. Wilson added four points for EHS, Scarborough five, A.J. Robertson two and Malik Robinson two. The Jaguars were led by Aaron Norman's seven points, with David Jones adding six and Jernard Skyes, Kenneth Bell and Jalen Hemphill five points each.
The Tigers host Granite City at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a Southwestern Conference game before heading to East St. Louis for a 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 league game against the Flyers in their final game before their Prairie Farms-Collinsville Holiday Classic opener against Belleville Althoff at 8 p.m. Dec. 28.
