EDWARDSVILLE — The Alton Redbirds accomplished some history on Saturday.

They won the first game of the first-ever SWC at the E Shootout, beating the Granite City Warriors 71-45 at SIUE’s Vadalabene Center.

“It’s fun to carry on the tradition,” Alton senior Tyler Springman said. “I hope every year, we win.”

Now, the Redbirds are setting their sights on winning the Southwestern Conference championship this year. A year ago, they finished second to Edwardsville with a 9-5 record in the conference standings.

“We want to keep competing and get better,” Alton coach Eric Smith said. “We feel we like we’ve got good enough players and if we do that, all of that stuff will fall in line. If we play well and we come out and compete, we’ll have a chance at the end of the year to be in that talk and that’s ultimately the goal for us.”

Alton improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in league play with the win over the Warriors. The Redbirds bounced back from the 60-59 loss to St. Mary’s in the winner-take-all championship game of the Alton Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 26.

“We came out and played hard,” Alton senior Damion Reid said of the loss to St. Mary’s. “We just came up short.”

On Saturday, the Redbirds took a 6-0 lead over the Warriors and never looked back. They forced the Warriors to make 23 turnovers, 11 in the first half and 12 in the second.

“Every time we make a mistake, it’s a basket for them because they’re so athletic and it’s a tough way to play basketball,” first-year Granite City coach Raffi Karibian said.

The Warriors dropped to 0-5 overall and 0-1 in Southwestern Conference play. They play at Belleville West at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“Nobody is going to feel sorry for us,” Karibian said. “Like I told them in the locker room, when practice comes up, we have to get ready for West.”

The Granite City coach said the conference will be very competitive this year.

“Every team in the conference is loaded,” he said. “I’ve seen the preseason tournaments. Everybody has done well on Thanksgiving tournaments. We’ve struggled and we didn’t win games. I don’t know if anybody has ever had so little varsity experience coming back like we have.”

Senior Torrey Deal led the Warriors with 13 points. He’s the only returning player from last year’s squad that finished 14-15.

Deal said he enjoyed the experience of playing in a NCAA Division I arena.

“It was a good atmosphere to play in a college environment,” he said. “We’ve got a taste of a bigger fan base. It was pretty packed. It was good to play in front of everyone despite the loss.”

Alton and Granite City played the first of four games in the Shootout on Saturday.

A total of 11 seniors played in Saturday’s game. Alton has six seniors and Granite City has five.

Alton’s seniors combined to score 42 points against the Warriors. Reid was the team’s leading scorer with 13 points with three 3-pointers, Ty’ohn Trimble had 10 points with three treys, Maurice Edwards scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds and Springman finished with eight points off the bench.

Reid hit all of his 3-pointers in the second quarter. With the Redbirds leading 19-13 early in the period, they went on an 8-0 run and Reid hit two treys during that stretch.

“We needed a little bit of spark,” Smith said. “Offensively, we kind of stalled out there for a little bit and he came in and gave us a little bit of a spark and he gave us a shot of energy. It was a nice opportunity for a kid to come in and produce and help us out.”

Also for Alton, junior Kevin Caldwell, Jr., finished with 12 points and sophomore Terrance Walker had eight points and six rebounds.

The 71 points marked a season high for the Redbirds, who will play at O’Fallon at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Alton led 17-11 after the first quarter and 37-20 at halftime.

“We had some spurts where we did all right,” Smith said. “We had to find a way to try to stay a little more focused throughout the course of the game. We had a couple of breakdowns here and there, but ultimately I think we’re pretty pleased with the way we played today.”

Freshman Freddy Edwards had seven points and eight rebounds for Granite City.

“The thing about Freddy Edwards is nothing is going to faze him this year because he played varsity football for the whole season,” Karibian said. “So there’s nothing we can throw that’s going to scare him. He's just got to get used to playing basketball.”

ALTON 71, GRANITE CITY 45

(SWC at the E Shootout)

Granite City 11 9 15 9 — 45

Alton 17 20 13 21 — 71

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