EDWARDSVILLE - Bryce Spiller led Edwardsville with 16 points, while Isayah Kloster added 13 as the Tigers went on to a 59-41 win over Belleville Althoff Catholic in a boys basketball game played Tuesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
The Tigers pulled away in the second half and got very good guard play in taking the win over the Crusaders.
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"i thought our guards did a much better job of taking care of the ball," said Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas, "and both Bryce and Isayah made some big shots for us. We executed a lot of things well, and we rebounded better."
The sophomores in particular all played well, as did the entire team.
"Our sophomores are getting better and understanding more of our schemes," Battas said.
Edwardsville jumped to a 16-12 lead after the first quarter, then expanded the lead to 27-19 at halftime and 41-25 after three quarters, outscoring the Crusaders in the final period 18-16.
Along with Spiller's and Kloster's performances offensively, Jordan Bush scored 11 points for the Tigers, with Malik Allen adding seven points, Shaun Pacatte had four points, Hersch Greene and Alec Marchetto both scored three points and A.J. Tillman had two points.
Jordan Lewis led Althoff with nine points, while Dainen Rucker added seven points and Taylor Powell had six points.
The Crusaders are now 0-8 and next play at Mt. Vernon on Friday night at 7:30 p.m.. and host Carbondale next Tuesday in a 4 p.m. tip. The Tigers go to 4-3 with the win and next play Breese Mater Dei Catholic in the Greenville Shootout on Saturday at 6 p.m., then host a pair of St. Louis-area teams back-to-back, playing Riverview Gardens of North St. Louis County Monday night, then KIPP Academy of St. Louis next Tuesday in a pair of 7:30 p.m. tip-offs. Battas knows that the team is working hard in practice and is getting better.
"We're going to try to keep getting better in practice every day," Battas said, "especially on offense we'd like to keep improving."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
