BELLEVILLE • All those hours spent shooting free throws paid off for the Edwardsville boys basketball team Friday night.
Edwardsville (15-4, 7-2) made 17 of 18 free throws in the fourth quarter, including all 10 by Tre Harris, on the way to a 58-55 win at Belleville West. It was the eighth victory in a row for the Tigers.
"Every practice, we're going hard, and everybody is real winded, but after we're done running up and down and playing a scrimmage or whatever, we go out there and knock down some free throws," said Harris, who scored 18 points. "Everybody has been hitting some big ones, and it won us the game tonight."
The Tigers trailed by six points at halftime, as they had trouble getting the ball past West's post duo of 6-8, 230-pound Kendell Smith and 6-6, 235-pound Jaylon Owens. But Edwardsville continued to drive to the hole in the fourth quarter as three Maroons fouled out in the final minute.
"We were able to pressure them more in the second half," Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo said. "I thought (Diarra) Cropper and Darius (Crochrell) really did a good job in our trapping zone. We did a better job of defending them inside."
The loss was a heartbreaker for West (10-10, 4-6), but there was some good news for the Maroons. Junior Nick Van Osdale, who was averaging 15.5 points per game before breaking a bone in his right wrist in early December, returned to the lineup and scored 11 of his 13 points in the first half.
"Belleville West played an outstanding game, and they were very hard to play against," Waldo said. "You've got to give a lot of credit to No. 25 (Van Osdale) after not being able to play for all that time and to play as well as he did."
Van Osdale's 3-pointer gave West a 30-24 lead at halftime. A trey by Harris brought Edwardsville within 35-34 midway through the third quarter, but a layup by Owens, off a pass from Smith, gave the Maroons their biggest lead, 41-34, with 1:59 remaining in the quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Edwardsville chipped away at West's lead, finally going ahead 54-53 on two free throws by Harris with 51.5 seconds to play. Harris went to the line after Owens, who had a team-high 19 points for the Maroons, picked up his fifth foul.
"Harris did a good job in the fourth quarter of competing hard and getting loose balls and rebounds," Waldo said. "His defensive rebounding was very important tonight."
Two free throws by Jaret Jones gave West its last lead, 55-54, with 33 seconds left. But Edwardsville went ahead to stay on two free throws by Drew Curtis with 25 seconds to play, and Josh White added two more points from the line with 11 seconds on the clock. In that span, Jones and Michael Schmidt fouled out for West.
"I thought Edwardsville couldn't have played any better," West coach Joe Muniz said. "They made 20 of 21 free throws and they made a lot of shots.
"They made two field goals the whole fourth quarter, but we didn't guard very well. I'll be the first to say it wasn't because the officials were bailing them out -- we were fouling them."
Down by three, West still had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Van Osdale (his only miss of the night) and Jermiah Martin both fell short from 3-point range.
Garrett Covington led Edwardsville with 19 points, including four treys. White had 13 points.
Schmidt, with 10 points, was the third West player in double figures.
"The first half we did a great job of getting the ball in the post and attacking the basket, but in the second half we settled for a little more of a perimeter game," Muniz said. "We need to do a better job finishing games."
