BELLEVILLE • With its original starting five back in place, the Belleville West boys basketball team is shaping up to be a postseason contender.
After a slow start, the host Maroons looked sharp in a 58-48 win over crosstown rival Althoff on Saturday. Junior Nick Van Osdale, in his third game back after missing 15 games with a broken bone in his right wrist, had a team-high 18 points.
"We're harder to guard," West coach Joe Muniz said. "We've got two very good ball handlers in Michael (Schmidt) and Nick, and our post players (Kendall Smith and Jaylon Owens) can score. Jaret Jones ... did a great job getting the ball in the post and guarding."
"We'd make a mistake, and they would capitalize on it," Crusaders coach Greg Leib said. "We faced a very good opponent, and Belleville West is going to be a tough out come regional time."
Althoff (10-14) started strong, as a layup by Alex Sandheinrich capped a 10-0 run, giving the Crusaders a 10-3 lead with 2:34 to play in the first quarter.
"Althoff came out with a lot of energy; it's a city game and they normally do," Muniz said. "Our guys were a little disappointed with how we played last night (a 69-62 loss to East St. Louis on Friday) and we had a little hangover to start the game."
A free throw by Smith put West (12-11) ahead 18-12 midway through the second quarter. A pair of free throws by Althoff's Kevin Renner got the Crusaders within 23-19 at halftime.
A layup by Owens, after a steal by Schmidt, extended West's lead to 38-25 with 2:38 remaining in the third quarter.
"Coach (Muniz) talks every day about how we've got to play within our offense, and that's what we've been doing," Van Osdale said. "We've been sharing the ball really well."
Althoff got within 50-42 on a pair of free throws by Renner with 2:24 to play in the game, but the Crusaders couldn't get any closer. Two free throws by Schmidt made the score 55-42 with 1:24 remaining.
"They did a good job of getting it to their big guys," Leib said. "For the most part, we guarded them with our 6-2 and 6-3 guys pretty well, but they're 6-8 and 6-5. They didn't get as many second chances at the last time we played them."
"When we take good shots, we're pretty good," Muniz said. "We can shoot the three, but we're not a 3-point shooting team. Our bread and butter is our two post players, and we've got to get it in to them. That creates space for our guards to penetrate."
Schmidt had 13 points for West, while Owens added 11.
The leading scorers for Althoff were Renner (16) and Eldon Salmond (11).
