Smith ignites Tigers with game-high 32 points in 59-48 win over Redbirds
ALTON - “He can play.”
That's what Alton boys basketball coach Eric Smith said about Edwardsville's Mark Smith after he put up 32 points and 11 rebounds on the Redbirds in the Tigers' 59-48 Southwestern Conference win at the Redbird Nest Tuesday night.
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The win put EHS at 17-1 overall, 6-1 in the SWC; the Redbirds dropped to 9-8 overall, 4-4 in the league.
“He's a grown man,” Eric Smith said. “He's a physical kid who knows how to play the game.”
“Mark has worked hard and done a good job of getting better every year,” said Tiger coach Mike Waldo. “Mark is a very good in practice; our guys do a good job of getting Mark into good positions and he does a good job of scoring and passing. That's a credit to him and a credit to his teammates that they space so well, but I thought Mark did well tonight.”
The Redbirds' Dereaun Clay wound up with 20 points on the night and was instrumental in an early second-half run that put the Redbirds from 24-19 down at the half to 27-24 ahead with 5:50 left in the third period. “He was more active in the second half,” Eric Smith said. “That's the kind of thing we need him to do; he's got to assert himself a little bit more.”
Edwardsville limited Redbird guards Kevin Caldwell and Ty'ohn Trimble to six and seven points respectively. It meant, to Eric Smith, “some other guys have to be more aggressive,” he said. “It was what you saw at the end, when guys catch, sweep and put it on the floor; that's an opportunity for kids to get to the basket and make a play for somebody.”
“With Alton's guard play, you have to try to limit their guards as much as you can,” Waldo said. “That's hard to do; those guys are good.”
Edwardsville's win was more than Smith's effort. “I thought Jackson Best's play off the bench was a big, big part of the game,” Waldo said. “He did a really good job defensively during (a stretch of the game when Smith was out with foul trouble); I thought his play off the bench was a big part of the game.
“I also thought (Caleb) Strohmeier and Jack Marinko did a great job for us defensively. Those guards (Caldwell and Trimble) are good, and I thought Caleb and Jack did a really good job of guarding them. I thought that was a big part of the game also. They're quick – unusually quick – and their hands are quick; they were able to strip it out of our hands a lot of times and you have to give them credit. We just have to do a better job of holding on to the ball.”
Oliver Stephen had 11 points for the Tigers, including two big three-pointers from the left side of the corner down the stretch that helped put the game away for the Tigers. “I thought Oliver had a very good game,” Waldo said. “Oliver does a lot of things well; he's a very good defender, he got a lot of tough rebounds (ending up with seven on the night), he's a good screener. Oliver's gotten better every year; he's worked harder and gotten better every year.
“Alton was very good tonight and everyone in the league's good. We just have to keep on practicing and keep on trying to improve.”
Strohmeier added seven points for EHS and Marinko five; Damion Reid also added six for AHS.
Next up for the Tigers is a league home game against Belleville West, while the Redbirds travel to Granite City; both games are set for a 7:30 p.m. tip.
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