Redbirds run past Warriors in SWC @ the E opener, Caldwell tosses in 17 points
EDWARDSVILLE – Alton's boys basketball team is a very talented bunch.
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“Offensively, we've got some skilled kids who can do some things,” said Redbird coach Eric Smith following the Redbirds' 85-44 win over Granite City in the opening game of the second edition of the SWC @ the E showcase event at SIUE's Sam Vadalebene Center Saturday afternoon; the win put the Redbirds at 4-1 on the year, 2-0 in the SWC; the Warriors fell to 1-4 overall, 0-1 in the league
“One of the things we talked about coming in was how difficult it is shooting in an arena for the first time for some kids,” Smith said. “I think we calmed some of that down – we went inside-out (on the offensive end).
“Our kids aren't selfish on the offensive end; we passed the ball fairly well.”
Smith did see some things that he thought the Redbirds needed to work on. “We've got to do a little bit better defensively,” Smith said. “We've got to e a little more tough on the defensive end; we'll give in some possessions, we'll let guys straight line-drive to the basket, take too many chances; we've got to get some fool's good a little bit because we take some chances and end up with a steal.
“It's hard to convince a 16- or 17-year-old kid that one time you get it is fine, it's the other five times that you don't that causes problems; we'll keep improving on some of that stuff.”
Alton's only loss so far this season came in the championship game of their own Thanksgiving-week tournament to a good St. Mary's team out of south St. Louis city. “I think we learned that we're decent,” Smith said when asked what the Redbirds learned from the loss to the Dragons. “They're good – they're a good team; we wanted to play some people in that tournament that would challenge us, and they did.
“I thought we fought, we competed and did really well against them. Obviously you wish you could play them a little bit later in the season where offensively, we can do some different things – we put in a new offense this year and we worked on it for two-and-a-half weeks before we played them the first time; we're excited about where we're at.”
Alton grabbed an early lead on the Warriors and steadily built it up as the game went on, eventually getting to a 67-33 lead at one point in the third quarter and kept going from there throughout the game. A total of 12 Redbirds were on the scoresheet at the end of the game, with Kevin Caldwell leading with 17 points, with Josh Rivers adding 12 and Donovan Clay 10 on the day for Alton; GCHS was led by 12 points each from Emmitt Gordon and Jerry Watson while Zidane Moore was right behind with eight points for the Warriors.
Next for the Redbirds is a 7:30 p.m. Friday home game against East St. Louis, who got past Belleville East in the showcase Saturday night; the Warriors' next opponent is Belleville West, who defeated Edwardsville in Saturday's finale, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Memorial Gym before heading to O'Fallon for a 7:30 p.m. Friday game at the Panther Dome.
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