GRANITE CITY — A hot shooting Alton Redbird basketball team trounced the Granite City Warriors in the first round of the Class 4A Granite City Regional on Monday.

The Redbirds shot 45 percent from the field, 14-of-24 from the free throw line and nailed eight 3-pointers in a 74-40 victory. Alton will take on No. 4 seed Quincy (20-5) at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Granite City Regional semifinals.

The Redbirds improved to 15-11 with Monday’s win, while the Warriors wrapped up their season at 1-23.

Maurice Edwards led Alton’s offense with 23 points. He scored 17 points in the first half and left the game late in the third quarter with the lead well in hand.

“This is the playoffs,” Edwards said. “We’re ready to play, that’s really all that it is. We want to make it as far as we did last year.”

Edwards has been a part of back-to-back regional championship teams for the Birds, making it to the sectional finals in both seasons. He’s been a key cog to those runs.

“He’s a dynamic kid,” Alton head coach Eric Smith said. “He has the ability to do a lot of good things for us.”  

Kevin Caldwell, Jr. added 14 points for the Redbirds on Monday. Alton’s scoring was spread around, as 14 different players scored.

“Up and down a lot of kids contributed,” Smith said. “Our part is keeping kids up on what we’re trying to do and I think they did well on that tonight.”

Alton’s Ty’ohn Trimble sank a 3-pointer at the 2:43 mark of the first quarter to spark the good fortunes for AHS. His trey kicked off an 8-3 run and the Redbirds led 14-9 with 1:21 left in the first quarter. Alton led 15-9 at the end of the first quarter and continued to extend its lead in the second quarter and owned a 35-18 advantage at halftime.

“If you look at the stats, they made five more threes than we did and seven more free throws than we did,” first-year Granite City head coach Raffi Karibian said. “They had 19 more rebounds. Obviously, the stats don’t lie. They’re very athletic and get the ball up and down the floor. Early on we were in the game, taking care of the basketball and taking the good shot. We played our style of play to our fullest and then we started turning the ball over. We have to play our style of basketball for 32 minutes and impose our will a little bit. We got away from that and they took advantage of the situation.”

The Redbirds’ dominance continued in the third quarter. Caldwell’s trey at the 4:55 mark gave Alton a 20-point lead at 42-22. Then a Caldwell four-point play at the 4:28 mark ballooned the lead to 46-22 Redbirds. Alton led 56-27 at the end of the third quarter.

“It took us a few minutes,” Smith said. “Our approach is being very relentless in the stuff we do and once we started settling down and taking as many threes as we did and attacking the rim, we got some better looks and some offensive rebounds. We got some pressure on them.”

Zidane Moore led the Warriors’ offense with 13 points and Freddy Edwards scored 10. Moore is just a sophomore, while Edwards is a freshman for GCHS.

Chatham Glenwood defeated Springfield 63-45 in the first play-in game in Granite City on Monday. Glenwood meets top-seeded Edwardsville at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first semifinal game of the regional.

CLASS 4A GRANITE CITY REGIONAL

(Play-in Game)

ALTON 74 GRANITE CITY 40

Alton                         15    20    21    18 — 74

Granite City                9      9      9    13 — 40    

Redbirds (15-11) — Maurice Edwards 23, Kevin Caldwell, Jr. 14, Ty’ohn Trimble 6, Morris Adams 6, Dereaun Clay 5, Damion Reid 4, Josh Rivers 3, Tyler Springman 3, Donovan Clay 2, Darrell Smith 2, Terrance Walker 2, Malik Smith 2, Evan Meyer 2. 2FG — 18  3FG — 8  FT — 14  PF — 13.

Granite City (1-23) —  Zidane Moore 13, Freddy Edwards 10, Jacob Spears 5, Nick Grote 4, Austin Bonvicino 3, Melvin Prior 3, Kendrick Williba 2.  2FG — 12  3FG — 3  FT — 7  PF — 16.