Epenesa, Stephen lead Edwardsville over West

The crush of college football recruiters has done little to distract A.J. Epenesa from his duties on the basketball court.

The Edwardsville junior scored 25 points Tuesday against Belleville East with recruiters from Alabama — among others — watching from the stands. He followed that up Friday with a 30-point performance in a 65-42 performance against Belleville West.

“I’m playing basketball now, I go into track in the spring, then football,” said the football Tigers’ highly-coveted defensive end. “I just try to focus on whatever sport I’m playing.”

Epenesa paired with junior Oliver Stephen for an inside-out tandem that turned a two-point halftime lead into a dominating victory. Epenesa scored 17 points in the second half alone, while Stephen knocked down five three-point baskets on his way to 18 total.

Orchestrating the whole thing was junior point guard Mark Smith, who cued up the highlight reel with an alley-oop feed to Epenesa for a second-quarter dunk.

“To have a good basketball team you’ve got to have a good post player, you’ve got to have a good point guard, and you’ve got to have somebody who can knock down a shot from the 3,” said Belleville West coach Joe Muniz. “They’ve got those three elements.”

The Maroons seized an early 10-point lead on 3-point baskets by seniors Tommy Evans and Andy Behrmann. But the shots stopped falling and, the Tigers doubled down on West inside players Tyler Dancy and E.J. Liddell, Epenesa and Stephen, and were able to close the gap fast.

“Our guys were taking the right shots and shooting with confidence,” said Muniz. “Edwardsville was putting three and four guys in the paint to try to limit E.J. and Tyler’s touches and it left guys open. We made those shots early.”

Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo was especially pleased with the play of his defense, namely Caleb Strohmeier and Chrys Colley.

“They did a great job defensively of limiting touches of the two big guys,” Waldo said. “Mark Smith and Oliver just really, really hustled hard in our defense tonight. They also deserve a lot of credit for reading where they had to go and getting there fast.”

The Maroons fell to 1-4 on the season, while Edwardsville improved to 5-2.

Key Moments

Smith started the Edwardsville surge in the first quarter with a layup that rolled off the neck of the rim and into the basket after he drew the foul. He completed the three-point play to spark a 12-2 run that tied the game at 17.

A Behrmann 3 put West back on top, but Epenesa’s jam triggered a shift in momentum.

“Mark and I practice those plays a lot,” he said. “I like having the dunks and Coach Waldo likes it because it brings an energy boost to the team and it’s fun.”

Epenesa scored the next six points to put the Tigers ahead 27-25 at half time.

Elijah Powell opened the second-half scoring for West, but Edwardsville followed with runs of 14-3 and 11-0 in the third quarter.

“The key in the game is the third quarter,” Muniz said. “When you get behind, you’re going to be playing against their four corners. Let’s look at their team and let’s look at my team -- we’re not well-suited for that.”

Key Performances

Besides Epenesa and Stephen, Strohmeier added eight points for the Tigers and Smith had five.

Behrmann led the Maroons with 11 points, all of which were scored in the first half. Evans added nine.

What’s Next

Edwardsville gets a week off before facing Granite City (4-2) next Friday. West is at Belleville East (4-3) Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:44 PM with the headline "Epenesa, Stephen lead Edwardsville over West."