The gym was packed Friday night at EHS as the boys pulled off a hard fought win against the Alton Redbirds adding to their now 13-3 season.

After falling to their Southwestern Conference rivals last season, the boys were looking for revenge and the hype surrounding the game gave them that chance.

“I think the way [the atmosphere] affected us was it energized it and gave us that extra push,” junior shooting guard Oliver Stephens said.

Even with the hype, the boys knew what was needed to keep their composure and came out with a 64-47 win.

“We do a lot of talking on the court and anytime we see someone down we cheer them up,” sophomore shooting guard Sammy Green said, “We like to stay focused and… treat every game the same and focus only on the game not the hype.”

Keeping their composure through the first half is what propelled the Tigers forward to their early third quarter run.

“Our third quarter was very good,” Green said, “We came out on a nice run and before you knew it we were up 14 instead of three.”

The Tigers would end up outscoring the Redbirds 19-9 the third quarter with help of a technical foul against Alton and crucial baskets made by Stephens and Junior AJ Epenesa.

Contributions from every player allowed the boys to hang on to their lead for the rest of the game.

“Our defense was great because Caleb [Stromeier] and Chrys [Colley] took away their strengths. But the offense is what won the game,” Green said, “They could not guard AJ [Epenesa] in the post and [Stephens] was sensational from the three. Mark [Smith] did an excellent job at point.”

Coach Waldo was also pleased with his squad’s execution after all the preparation they did.

“[Coach Waldo] said we did a good job getting into our offense and we didn’t let them speed us up so that we threw the ball away. The only turnovers we had were in the half court and we did a good job of getting back on defense so that they didn’t get fast breaks,” senior forward Kent Roberts said, “We played almost exactly how we planned to in practice and that’s why the score ended how it did.”