Weller Scores 24, Leads Three Players In Double Figures As Edwardsville Wins Big Over Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC 85-25

EDWARDSVILLE - Brennan Weller scored 24 points, Jack Nafziger had 22 points and Jalil Roundtree added 14 as Edwardsville opened the 2020 portion of their season with a resounding 85-25 win over Cleveland Naval Jr. ROTC, a magnet school from south St. Louis City, Wednesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

The Tigers opened the game with a 9-2 run early in the first quarter, then outscored the Commanders 31-6 in the third quarter and scored 14 of the game's last 16 points in the fourth quarter to take the win and open 2020 on the right foot.

"It was a great win for our guys," Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas said. "Any win is a good win, and they've got a couple of athletic guys; (Tyrese Walker) and (Rico Perry) concerned us a little bit. I thought we did a good job of contesting their shots, turning the ball over some, and our defense leading to offense."

And probably the most important thing was that everyone on the roster got a chance to play, and many of the players were able to score, with the Tigers getting their first game in since Dec. 30, a win over Triad in the Collinsville Prairie Farms Holiday Classic. And Battas made sure to recognize the players who came off the bench to make contributions to the Tigers.

"It's a great feeling being able to reward guys for all their hard work," Battas said. "A guy like Willie Thomas does so much work every day in practice. He's a senior, and he knows he's not going to get in the games hardly ever, and he deserves the reward he got tonight. He got to play in the third quarter and the fourth quarter, and he scored five points. So nights like tonight are special. To see our guys get as excited as they do for guys like Willie, as a coach, that's very, very rewarding; that's more rewarding to me than a win, that these guys care about each other, and they see the work that guys like Willie, Calen McKinney, some of the older guys do in practice. So, it's a fun night, and I like that, to see the smiles on their faces and the way that they feel about each other, and want each other to have success."

Cleveland jumped out in front in the opening seconds on a long two-pointer from Darrius Jackson, and as things went, it was the only lead the Commanders would enjoy on the night, as the Tigers went on a 9-0 run, with Roundtree, Weller and Nafziger all scoring, and Nafziger also knocking down a three to give Edwardsville a 9-2 lead, forcing a Cleveland time out with 4:03 left in the period. After the time out, Ahmod Gray hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 9-4, but then, the Tigers went on a 17-2 run in the remainder of the quarter, as both Weller and Gray traded baskets to start, then the Tigers scoring the final 15 points on back-to-back threes from Nafziger and Weller, a three-point play from Weller, two more Weller baskets and free throws from Caleb Valentine to take a 26-6 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Gray and Nafziger traded baskets to start out, then Weller hit a free throw and a three to extend the Tiger lead to 32-8 before a three from Walker made it 32-11 for Edwardsville. After that, the Tigers outscored the Commanders 8-2, with Weller scoring eight points in the stretch, and the Tigers getting points from Roundtree and Valentine to take a 41-13 lead at halftime.

Nafziger opened the second half by scoring Edwardsville's first six points, then Roundtree hitting a lay-in to give the Tigers a 49-13 advantage before Sidney Clay scored the first basket of the half for the Commanders to cut the lead to 49-15. The Tigers scored the next 11 points, behind Roundtree, Nafziger, and Ethan Young to extend the lead to 60-15 before Clay got a nice pass inside to score and make it 60-17. Edwardsville outscored Cleveland 10-6 the rest of the quarter, as Roundtree scored four, Nafziger hit a pair of free throws, and Gabe James hit a free throw and banked home a three, while the Commanders got baskets from Clay, Perry and Gray during the span that made the score 70-23 after the quarter, forcing the fourth quarter running clock.

McKinney opened the fourth quarter by hitting a floater to make it 72-23, but Jackson countered with a nice basket to make it 72-25. That would be all the scoring for Cleveland, as the Tigers scored the final 13 points of the game, with Valentine, Thomas and James all scoring, and Thomas receiving a very good pass that led to a three-point play that sent the Tigers' bench wild with delight for their teammate that made it 81-25. Thomas and James got the final two baskets of the game to make the final 85-25.

James ended up with eight points for Edwardsville, while Thomas scored five. McKinney ended up with four points, and both Young and Nic Hemken ended up with one point each. The Commanders were led by Gray with eight points, Clay ended up with six points, Walker had five points, Perry scored four points, and Jackson had two points.

The Tigers are now 8-5 on the year, and host O'Fallon on Friday night in the nightcap of a girls-boys doubleheader at Lucco-Jackson Gym, with the tip-off coming at 7:30 p.m. Edwardsville then is at Freeburg on Saturday night, at Highland next Tuesday, and hosts East St. Louis Jan. 15 and Alton Jan. 17. Battas is looking forward to the game against the Panthers, with big challenges ahead for his team as 2020 gets underway.

"That's right," Battas said. "We know that we have a really tough game on Friday. O'Fallon's, I think, has only two or three losses, and they've got a couple of new guys that they didn't have last year, in addition to the guys to the guys they had last year, so they're going to be hard to play against. Our conference is difficult, so we're just hoping to have a really good practice tomorrow, and play our best game on Friday."

And with tough challenges ahead, each Tiger practice session becomes more and more crucial.

"We tell our guys all the time, every practice is important," Battas said, "every game is important. Certainly, our schedule have a lot of challenges on it. I like the way our guys are playing right now, I like the way that we're assisting, making baskets. Jack Nafzinger's really turned it on here as of late, obviously, we're getting a lot of mileage our of Brennan, and our guard play has been a lot better with Ethan and Caleb and Jalil. So, we're excited about 2020, and we think our best basketball is in front of us, and we're going to need it, because we have some really good teams we're going to play against. Just proud of our guys, and excited to keep going."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.