EDWARDSVILLE • After beating Belleville East earlier in the season in a three-overtime contest, it was only a given Edwardsville and the Lancers would play an overtime game a second time on Friday night.
The two teams did and, just like the first one, the Tigers were able to come away with a 45-41 triumph over visiting East in a Southwestern Conference game at Lucco-Jackson Gymnasium.
Edwardsville, No. 8 in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings, improved to 13-4 overall and 6-2 in conference with its sixth straight win. Josh White was one of four players to score in double figures for the Tigers with a team-most 13. Garrett Covington and Tre Harris scored 11 each and Shawn Roundtree netted 10.
East fell to 11-9, 4-4 as Tim Goodwin had a game-high 14 points and Darreon Reddick contributed 10. Illinois recruit Malcolm Hill was held to just four points.
"We executed our game plan," said White, whose team won 69-64 in triple overtime on Dec. 12 at East. "We stuck to it all night. We didn't veer from it at all and that's how we got the win."
It was White who sealed Edwardsville's win Friday night when he sank both ends of a one-and-one with 14.3 seconds to go. The two foul shots put the Tigers up 45-41.
"Defensively, they were very good," Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo said. "It was hard to score. I thought defensively we did a good job all night and that's why we won."
White, Roundtree and Diarra Cropper suffocated Hill for most of the game, as he made only one of eight field goal attempts.
"I thought Josh, Cropper and Roundtree did a good job on Goodwin and Hill," Waldo noted. "I thought our guys did a good job of making it hard for (Hill) to catch the ball. He had to catch it farther away (from the basket). Defensively, it was a big part of the game. I thought that we played very well defensively."
The game was close throughout and Edwardsville held a 37-31 advantage after a Roundtree bucket with 3:36 to go in regulation.
But back-to-back 3-pointers by Stephen Brock and Reddick tied the game -- Reddick's came at 2:54.
Both teams had a chance to win it in regulation, but Hill missed a shot with 1:26 left and White missed a tip with one second remaining.
With the game tied at 41 in the extra frame, Roundtree and White made both ends of one-and-one free throws to ice the game.
"I thought we played pretty good," said Lancers coach Ray Hoffman, whose team has lost three straight. "A couple of things down the stretch didn't go our way. It's a tough loss. Our kids battled. I'm proud of what we did."
