O’Fallon romps to easy victory

Chris Lee/Post-Dispatch | O'Fallon guard Josh Buie (11) races up court during the first quarter of Friday's game against Edwardsville at O'Fallon.

O’FALLON, ILL. — What was supposed to be a close game Friday night between the two best Metro East large-schools boys basketball teams in Edwardsville and O’Fallon turned into a blowout for the Panthers.

Roosevelt Jones led a scoring parade of five players in double figures, recording 19 points and 15 rebounds as O’Fallon shredded the Tigers 77-53 in a Southwestern Conference game at the Panther Dome.

The Panthers, No. 4 in the Post-Dispatch large-schools rankings and No. 6 in the Associated Press Class 4A state poll, improved to 14-1 overall and 6-0 in the conference.

The Tigers, No. 6 in the large-schools rankings and No. 3 in the Associated Press Class 4A poll, fell to 8-2, 4-2. Quincy Morgan had 13 points off the bench and Will Triggs added 10 for Edwardsville.

“We knew if we came out playing real hard, we would have them the whole game,” Jones said. “If we were able to shut Triggs and Brendan (Wheeler) down, we were going to have them throughout the whole game.”

And that’s what O’Fallon’s defense did. Triggs was 0 for 10 from the field with eight rebounds and Wheeler made only one of nine field-goal attempts.

“This is a game we wanted,” Panthers coach Rick Gibson said. “We have a great rivalry going with Edwardsville. We prepared. We had two really good practices preparing getting ready for them. The guys were prepared.”

That preparation was evident in the first half, when O’Fallon ran away from the Tigers and held a 42-13 advantage at intermission. Edwardsville had entered the contest as the top defensive team in the league, allowing only 42.9 points per game.

The Panthers led 17-9 after one quarter, then used a 21-3 run in the second quarter to put the game away. Roy Bullock, who finished with 10 points off the bench, had nine during the run and Jones added six.

Chevaughn Lawrence and Shane Watson ended with 13 points each and Josh Buie added 11 for O’Fallon.

“To hold them to 13 points (at halftime) …. team defense. Credit to the whole team for that,” Gibson said. “Roosevelt gets a lot of credit for his offense. But his defense … he’s a big body (6 feet 3) inside and he showed that tonight. He got in good position and forced Triggs into some tough shots.”

“I thought O’Fallon played awfully well and they defended us awfully well,” Edwardsville coach Mike Waldo said. “The way we normally score, we weren’t able to do that tonight. I thought they did a good job defensively.”