Edwardsville thumps Waterloo 73-41, Stephen nets game-high 31 points

WATERLOO - After a slow start, Edwardsville completely dominated Waterloo in the Battling Bulldogs Thanksgiving Tourney with a 73-41 triumph.

Edwardsville fell behind 9-0 in the first quarter, but then in the remainder of the period and into the second quarter, rattled off a 20-0 run to take command of the game.

After the 9-0 deficit, Edwardsville head coach Mike Waldo called a timeout and said he made some key adjustments in the huddle. From then on, it was smooth-sailing for the Tigers.

Oliver Stephen then went on a three-point roll, nailing 10 on the night and finished with 31 points, playing only in three quarters.

“I thought they did a good job in the beginning of the game and we had to make a lot of adjustments,” Waldo said. “Early in the year, you are always playing against things you haven’t practiced against much. We expected them to play a 2-3 zone and we practiced for that. They came out with a 3-2 zone and we had to make some adjustments. Our guys did a good job of passing the ball and making some adjustments.”

Edwardsville led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter, 36-18 at the half; 64-32 at the end of three and then 73-41 was the final tally.

Waldo praised all his starters for their efforts.

“Mark Smith did a great job of distributing the ball and making the right pass,” Waldo said. “He had an excellent game. A.J. (Epenesa) did a great job of scoring and throwing the ball out and on the boards. Oliver did an excellent job defensively tonight. Chrys Colley and Caleb Strohmeier also did a good job defensively. That is three games in a row Colley has done a good job defensively.”

Epenesa had 11 points and 10 rebounds, including one thunderous slam dunk from a great dish from Stephen.

Smith followed Stephen with a hot hand with 14 points. Zach Doornink came off the bench to toss in six points in a short period of time and Jack Marinko netted a three-pointer off the bench.

Edwardsville, 2-1, plays at 5 p.m. in the tourney on Saturday against Althoff.

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