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ST. LOUIS - Junior forward Brennan Weller provided nearly all of the offense for Edwardsville, scoring 26 points, his fifth game of the last six where's he's broken 20 points, and a very good team defense all but shut down a high-powered offense as the Tigers defeated St. Louis McKinley 36-21 Tuesday night at McKinley's gym.
Edwardsville was able to stifle a very good Goldbug offense that has averaged 60 points-per-game in building a 17-2 record and a six-game winning streak going into Tuesday's game.
"We played really good defense," said Tigers' coach Dustin Battas. "They average 60 points a game, so I thought our team defense was really good. Jalil (Roundtree) and Caleb (Valentine) both did a great job of keeping their guy in front of them."
Weller's 26 led all scorers, with Ethan Young chipping in four points, but the highlight was the Tigers' defense, which held the Goldbugs to three points in the second and fourth quarters to help win the game. In fact, it was Weller who scored Edwardsville's first 15 points of the game, including all 11 as Edwardsville held an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, and the only four points of the second as the Tigers had a 15-11 lead at halftime, allowing only a Aaric Norman three just before halftime, the first points scored by McKinley in just over eight-and-a-half minutes.
Edwardsville stretched its lead to 26-18 after three quarters, but the Goldbugs came to within 26-20 early in the fourth. Back-to-back lay-ins made the score 30-20 for the Tigers, and then Edwardsville outscored McKinley 6-1 the rest of the way to get the win.
Tyler Jones led the Goldbugs with eight points, while JaDun Byrd added seven, an indication of how well the Tiger defense played.
"We did a great job of making them take contested shots," Battas said, "and Nic (Hemken) and Gavin (Reames) were great on the boards."
The Tigers are now 18-8 overall, having won their seventh game in their last eight, and play against Mascoutah at home on Friday night. Battas hopes that the team will continue its current roll.
"We're still rolling," Battas said. "The guys are playing well, and are confident, and are really competing at a high level. We have Mascoutah on Friday, and four tough conference games after that. Our kids are excited, and really want to end the season playing their best basketball."
