Although the boys basketball team’s first conference game of the season ended in a loss to the Belleville West Maroons, the Tigers made sure their last game wouldn’t end in the same way.

EHS beat Belleville West 56-43 on Tuesday, March 7 in the IHSA class 4A Ottawa Township sectional semifinal game after capturing the regional title from the Alton Redbirds who have ended the Tigers’ season the past two years.

“This was the third time we’ve played Belleville West, so we knew a lot about them, and they knew a lot about us,” assistant coach Dustin Battas said. “We really took time (in practice) to execute our plays and practice our timing and those little things that can make a difference in a close game when the two teams know each other so well.”

And a close game it was. Two consecutive dunks at the end of the first quarter earned senior Mark Smith a standing ovation and boosted the Tigers’ lead to seven points, but the Maroons rallied during the second quarter to bring the score to 21-23 at the half.

“We had a game plan that we were following (into the second half),” senior Oliver Stephen said. “We knew that once we started hitting our shots, we’d expand our lead.”

But that lead was hard-fought.

With 1.7 seconds left in the third quarter, two good points on the line by Belleville West’s senior Elijah Powell edged the score to 28-30 in the Maroon’s favor.

Smith rebounded and rocketed the ball nearly three-quarters of the length of the court in an overhead pass to senior A.J. Epenesa, who then shot a 14-foot jumper to tie the score before the buzzer sounded—not that it could be heard over the roaring from Tiger fans.

“Tying it up at the end of the third and taking the lead at the start of the fourth quarter was huge,” coach Battas said. “Those two possessions changed the game for us.”

And once the game had been changed, there was no going back.

Smith scored 11 of the Tigers’ 26 points in the fourth quarter, bringing his total to 31 points—his new game-high.

But Smith’s points could have been mute if not for senior Nate Kolesa holding Belleville West’s sophomore-superstar E.J. Liddell, who averaged over 37 points per game in the postseason, to just ten points total—his second-lowest scoring game of the season.

“(Sophomore Caleb) Strohmeier got in foul trouble and Kolesa came in and really eliminated Liddell and made it very hard for him to get the ball,” coach Battas said. “Defense is his thing. Nate practices every day just in case that kind of stuff would happen, so we were confident that he would do fine, and he did a great job.”

The Tigers advance to the sectional finals game against Danville High School on Friday, March 10.

“We’ve started researching Danville and watching some film. We know they’re good, but we still have two good days of practice left,” coach Battas said. “We’re just excited to still be playing and looking forward to playing a team that we haven’t played before.”

Although the 220-mile trek to the game site in Ottawa, Ill. isn’t short, Epenesa is hopeful it will be a sweet trip back to EHS with a sectional title.

“They have good players and we have good players,” he said. “It will be a fun game to watch.”