LADUE, Mo. – For the third straight season, the Edwardsville Tigers took the trip across the Mississippi to take part in the Don Maurer Holiday Invitational hosted by Mary Institute and Saint Louis Country Day School (MICDS).

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The Tigers earned a No. 2 seed in the tournament and had already defeated No. 15 seeded Ritenour back on Monday by a score of 64-32.

The day after Christmas, the tournament resumed with its quarterfinal matchups. Edwardsville took on and defeated No. 10 seed Francis Howell 66-40 Thursday night to improve to 9-1 on the season.

Francis Howell narrowly upset the No. 7 seed Fort Zumwalt North 55-54 in its opening game. The Vikings were also the ones to send Edwardsville to the consolation bracket last year when the Tigers lost 68-55 in the semifinals.

Thursday night’s game started a bit slow offensively. Lincoln Swan opened things up with a three for Francis Howell and then the teams swapped baskets. Herbert Martin’s basket took a 6-5 lead for the Tigers, one that they would never lose. Edwardsville led 8-5 after the first quarter.

“I thought our guys really guarded well,” Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said postgame. “I was worried about their personnel with their perimeter-based offense and having multiple guys who can shoot threes. Offensively, we started a little slow, but I thought our defense got us that lead.”

It’s a lead that Edwardsville took for good. The Tigers opened the second quarter on a 9-3 run to increase the lead to 17-8. Shots continued to fall for Edwardsville as it led 28-16 at halftime.

“They made me look a lot smarter in the second quarter,” Battas joked. “People asked what we did at the end of the first quarter, but we didn’t really change much. We just made some shots.”

The Vikings would get no closer than an eight-point deficit as Edwardsville kept them at bay for the remainder of the game. The Tigers led 51-31 after three quarters.

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Edwardsville made six three-pointers on the night, four of them in the second half, but none better than Iose Epenesa’s straightaway triple in the fourth quarter.

The big guy made a big shot, one that he’s capable of knocking down, but doesn’t get the chance all that often.

“Iose practices that every day. He’s a gifted athlete obviously, but he’s got great ball skills,” Battas said of the four-star Iowa football commit.

“I kind of laugh with the family because we never let older brother AJ shoot those. He’s making a living tackling people. But Iose, actually has some perimeter skill. We don’t need him to do that much, but he’s a gifted kid,” Battas continued.”

“I joke sometimes with our guards that it looks better out of Iose’s hands than it does some of our 5-foot-9 guys. He’s not going to shoot a ton of those, but he’s capable of making one or two a game.”

It was the icing on top of the cake for the Tigers who move into the tournament’s semifinals for the second straight season. They’ll take on No. 6 seeded Kirkwood on Saturday, Dec. 28 at 7:45 p.m.

Kirkwood upset the No. 3-seeded hosts 70-68 in Thursday’s final quarterfinal matchup.

Martin led all scorers with 22 points and made shots from all sorts of different locations and angles.

“It’s Herbert’s time,” Battas said. “He’s really developed into what we think is one of the best point guards in the St. Louis area. We’re very proud of him. He’s really paid his dues and is figuring out how to score when he’s needed, but also to get our other players involved. I thought he had a really well-rounded game tonight.”

Martin came into the MICDS tourney averaging 19.5 points per game, which leads the Tigers.

“We trust him with the ball and he’s strong around the rim. He’s also working on his perimeter shot,” Battas said of Martin. “If you can shoot, and you can get to the rim and finish through contact, that’s a pretty hard high school kid to guard. We try to use that to our full advantage and keep putting him in those spots where he can do damage.”

Bryce Pryor and Epenesa each had 13 points for the Tigers and Miccah Butler added 10. Swan led Francis Howell with 11 points and Aiden O’Haire had 10.

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