Rowan Weller Leads With 18 Points, Last Two Are Biggest: Buzzer Beater Gives Edwardsville 47-45 Win Over Belleville East

The Tigers' Hill-Lomax again has electrifying slam dunks in contest against Lancers.

Colin Feeney, Contributing Sports Writer

Feb 18, 2026 11:16 AM Feb 18, 2026 2:48 PM

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EDWRDSVILLE – Rowan Weller led Edwardsville with 18 points, but his final two were the most important, as his buzzer-beater in the lane went in as time expired to give the Tigers a critical Southwestern Conference boys basketball win 47-45 over Belleville East Tuesday night, Feb. 17, 2026, at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

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The winning shot came on a play set up with 2.4 seconds left after the Lancers tied the game on a foul-line jumper. Weller took the inbounds pass, sprinted the length of the floor, and hit the shot after the buzzer went off to give the Tigers the win.

“We practice a play very similar to that,” said Edwardsville head coach Dustin Battas. “We added a nuance with Tucker Lindstedt screening, because I was worried about the inbounder being long, and messing with Matt’s (Wilson) pass. But Matt’s a smart, mature guy for a freshman, so he takes it out on those plays.

"I thought Tucker did a great job of screening the inbounder. And then Miccah had a screen for Rowan. We have a good shooter screen, which is usually a good combination. The play has a few options: Throw it ahead to Devyon, then hit Miccah. They covered Devyon Hill-Lomax well, and Miccah emptied into the ball side, which I think, into that right corner, gave Rowan a little space to get to his right hand, and Rowan just made a great play."

Coach Battas stressed that if you practice the last-second play, “four seconds is enough time for a catch and a couple of dribbles, and a shot. So, it’s still a great play, but I’m proud of our guys. We do those in practice at about 4:55 p.m., when they’ve been on the court for two hours and 55 minutes. And so, I think that’s a mature group of guys that have just been able to find a way to win. But that execution on that last play was excellent by our guys.”

Weller has been coming up with important plays the last few games to keep the Tigers in the game or make a game-winning play.

“Rowan is really getting better at making shots around the basket,” Battas said, “finishing strong through contact, and having to handle the ball against pressure for 32 minutes is hard enough. And then, we’re leaning on him for some inside baskets, because our other guys are shooting from outside.

"Some nights, that’s easy, and some nights, we have trouble getting those in, so Rowan’s steady ability to get to the rim, put pressure on the rim, assists. He had 11 assists against O’Fallon and had another good game tonight. Rowan’s playing his best basketball, and when you get to March, you want your point guard to play his best basketball, so he’s been very valuable for us.”

It was the regular season home finale and Senior Night for the Tigers, and in the annual pregame ceremonies, the five seniors on the team – Miccah Butler, Devyon Hill-Lomax, Tucker Lindstedt, Christopher Roberts, and Brady Niemi – and their families were saluted, thanked, and honored for their contributions to the program.

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In an extra ceremony, Butler was honored for becoming the 25^th player in Tigers history to go over 1,000 career points, which he accomplished Feb. 13 in a 27-point performance in a win at O’Fallon.

The Tigers' Miccah Butler.

The Tigers started the game off with an 8-0 run, and were able to use that run as a bit of a cushion to help maintain the advantage throughout.

Weller started the opening 8-0 run with back-to-back baskets, followed up by a basket from Butler and a dunk from Hill-Lomax, forcing the Lancers to use a timeout. James Johnson got East on the board shortly after, but Weller and Wilson scored late to give Edwardsville a 12-4 lead at quarter time.

The Lancers came back on baskets from Savon Wade, Kenny Wilson, and Johnson to open the second quarter to cut the lead to 12-10, but the Tigers got a basket from Butler and back-to-back threes from Niemi to take a 20-14 lead. Near the end of the half, Kameron Eusey hit a three to cut the lead to 24-21, but Weller came back with a three at the buzzer to give the Tigers a 27-21 lead at the interval.

The third quarter saw Weller and Buter continue to hold off the Lancers early one, giving Edwardsville a 31-23 lead, but East rallied back to within six on a three-point play by Ja’Cory Brown, and Troy Alexander and Wilson, continued to chip away at the Edwardsville lead, making it 29-27 at three-quarter time.

In the fourth quarter, a basket by Brown gave the Lancer their first lead of the game at 42-41 with 3:19 left, with Weller hitting a free throw to tie the game 42-42, A free throw by Johnson put East back on top 43-42 with 1:58 to go, but a basket from Butler and a Weller free throw gave Edwardsville a 45-42 lead in the final minute. Alexander hit from the line with 2.4 seconds to go to tie the game 45-45, and the Tigers called time to set up the play, which Wilson made an excellent pass to Weller, who sprinted down the floor and scooped a shot that went in after the buzzer to give the Tigers the 47-45 win.

Weller led the Tigers with 18 points, while Butler hit for 12 points, Niemi scored six points, Hill-Lomax had four points, and Wilson had three points.

Coach Battas continued the praise for his boys in the win:

“I thought Tucker Lindstedt had a couple of big rebounds for us. We got a couple of stops, and they made a couple of difficult shots. But when we did miss, Tucker was able to get those rebounds. Then, Rowan got to the basket, made that one free throw to give us the lead late, and luckily, we were able to weather some storms to make a play. But at least on that last shot to take the lead, we were able to have it tied up and get a chance to win at the end.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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