Althoff holds off Edwardsville’s late charge as football players return to the court

Althoff welcomed back four key players to its lineup Saturday and coach Greg Leib was overjoyed to have them back.

Seniors Keenen Young and Tarkus Ferguson and juniors Jordan Goodwin and C.J. Coldon traded in their football cleats for sneakers and helped the Crusaders defeat Edwardsville 67-59 in the Battling Bulldogs Thanksgiving Tournament at Waterloo High.

The victory enabled Althoff to finish 3-1 in the round-robin tourney.

“I was playing football, but I was still working on my (basketball) game Tarkus and I got in the gym a lot,” said Goodwin, whose 17 points led the Crusaders. “The only thing that’s probably different is in football you get a break between plays. Out here, you don’t get a break.”

Young, Ferguson and senior Brendon Gooch each had 10 points for Althoff. Gooch was named to the all-tournament’s first team and junior Marvin Bateman earned second-team honors.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Goodwin and his other football teammates lost 51-7 to Chicago Phillips in the championship game of the Class 4A state tournament. Leib substituted frequently to keep his players’ legs fresh, and Goodwin, for one, enjoyed being back.

“Last night we lost state, but we know we have the opportunity to win state in basketball,” Goodwin said. “I just came out here and gave it my all. Basketball is my first love, so it was fun playing basketball out here tonight. It was my first game this season and I felt good.”

Leib said he wasn’t sure what he was going to see from the football players.

“I think they got a little tired there at the end, but overall, it was just a great effort coming out of a tremendous battle of a football season they just had,” Leib said. “They just came out and showed why they were so successful and got where they did.”

Althoff led 30-15 at halftime and 45-27 after three quarters, but the Tigers trimmed their deficit to single digits in the fourth quarter as junior Oliver Stephen caught fire from 3-point range. But the Crusaders’ advantage was too substantial for Edwardsville (2-2) to overcome.

Stephen, who had 31 points and 10 3-pointers on Friday, finished with 11 points against Althoff and was an all-tournament first-team pick. Junior A.J. Epenesa, who was not at the game Saturday because of a family function, also was named to the first team. Epenesa attended Senior Night activities for his sister, Sam, a volleyball player at Purdue.

Junior Mark Smith led Edwardsville with 18 points. Sophomore Sammy Green scored 11.

“Mike Waldo is the best coach in a 300-mile radius,” Leib said of the longtime Edwardsville coach. “Even without Epenesa, they’re still a very formidable opponent. We were able to play hard and do some good things. Overall, our approach to the game was good.”

Two other football players, junior Di’Mond Salmon and junior Edwyn Brown, did not play for Althoff. Brown has a foot injury and was not available.

Waldo called Althoff “a hard team to play against.”

“It’s always hard to defend people when you’ve got four or five guys making 3s,” he said. “You’ve just got to give credit to them that way. It’s an awfully good athlete to walk off the football field and start making 3s. They’re well-coached and they have athletes.

“I actually think we executed some things pretty good. I thought we had enough shots in the first half to be in the game. Their athleticism probably bothered us some, but I do think we had enough shots to be right there. Our guys battled well.”

Highland 60, O’Fallon 59, OT

Senior Luke Thies spun in the lane and banked in a shot with two seconds to play in overtime as the Bulldogs, who trailed 33-20 at halftime, rallied past O’Fallon.

Highland finished 2-2 in the tournament and dropped O’Fallon to 1-3.

“I knew that if I wanted to get to the basket, they were going to cut me off, and I was going to spin and do whatever I could to make a shot,” said Thies, who finished with 17 points. “I went up and shot it and it went in. I’ve had shots to tie games, but I’ve never won a game.”

Thies also hit a 3-pointer with 13 seconds in regulation that tied the game at 53.

“We kept pushing,” Thies said. “We hate losing, so we do whatever we can to win a game. It was a very fun game. We stayed mentally into it and didn’t give up.”

After Thies’ basket in overtime, O’Fallon called timeout with seven-tenths of a second to play. Junior Alex Orr’s long attempt hit off the front iron and bounced away at the horn.

“I thought we played a great first half,” Panthers coach Rick Gibson said. “In the first half, we played as good as we’ve played so far this year. Even in the third quarter, I thought we played well. The fourth quarter, we didn’t play well down the stretch. We missed some free throws and had some turnovers from guys who usually make free throws and are our ballhandlers.

“But they’re young and trying to figure it out. This would have been a good one to get. It was just a bad series at the end. A game like this could have gone a long way and maybe springboarded us a little bit. But we can’t roll over. It’s November and we’ve got to go back to work next week and see what happens.”

O’Fallon led 59-56 in overtime, but Orr missed two free throws, and the Bulldogs cut their deficit to 59-58 on two free throws by Thies.

After a Panthers turnover, Highland also appeared to lose possession on a pass from Thies to senior Austin Elledge in front of the Bulldogs bench. Elledge scurried for the ball and briefly gained possession before flipping it over his head.

O’Fallon recovered the loose ball, but officials ruled that Highland had called a timeout before Elledge tossed the ball back onto the court.

“As we were getting helter-skelter, I was starting to call a timeout,” Bulldogs coach Matt Elledge said. “Then when the ball slipped through (Austin Elledge’s) hands, I yelled for the timeout. He had control and just threw it in the air. I’ll take the call. Whether it was right or wrong, I’ll take the call. It obviously gave us one more possession.”

Thies made it count.

“They told me (Austin Elledge) had the ball when they called timeout,” Gibson said. “To me, the ball was in the air and everyone was yelling timeout. So to me, nobody’s got possession there. It was a bad call, but we gave it away there at the end. We choked it away.”

Joining Thies in double figures for the Bulldogs were Elledge (14), senior Justin Twyford (11) and senior Brode Portell (10). Sophomore Tabari Dunlap scored a game-high 20 points for O’Fallon and junior Ryan Fulton had 13.

O’Fallon senior Chance Armstrong was named to the all-tournament’s first team. Elledge earned second-team honors.

Carbondale 73, Waterloo 56

The Terriers (4-0) clinched the tournament championship by controlling the Bulldogs (0-4) from start to finish. Carbondale sophomore Darius Beane, who pumped in a team-best 18 points, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

“It’s the old cliche: ‘It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon,’” 18th-year Carbondale coach Jim Miller said. “That’s really true in basketball. It’s four long months. Championships are good, but you’ve got to get better. As the games progress, as years progress, you want every minute to be better, you want every quarter to be better, every game to be better. I think we took steps forward this week. Every time we stepped on the floor, we got a little better.”

Junior Winslow Martin (15 points), senior Shahere Lark (13), sophomore Kanie Acree (12) and senior Unree Westley (10) also reached double figures for the Terriers. Lark and Westley landed on the all-tournament team.

“Darius draws a lot of attention at times, which opens it up for other people,” Miller said. “We like that situation. These guys like each other. There’s no selfishness there.”

Junior Ben Huels scored a game-best 19 points for Waterloo and earned a spot on the all-tournament team. Junior Dylan Hunt had 12 points, junior Griffin Lenhardt had 11 and sophomore Ross Schrader pitched in with 10.

“I think we learned a lot as a team,” first-year Bulldogs coach Dane Walter said. “That’s what I just hit on in the locker room. Looking at day one, how we played, looking how we played tonight and everything in the middle, we’ve grown quite a bit already as a team.

“We just have to take this and build off it and learn from it. We didn’t play any cupcakes this week; we played some good teams. To be 0-4 is not as depressing or upsetting as if you had played some easy teams. This was a good tournament for us to play in. I think our weaknesses showed, and that’s something we can build off of and move forward.”　　

This story was originally published November 28, 2015 at 8:40 PM with the headline "Althoff holds off Edwardsville’s late charge as football players return to the court."