CENTRALIA —Chicago Marist held off a fourth-quarter rally by Alton and downed the Redbirds 49-45 in Saturday’s night’s third-place game of the Centralia Holiday Tournament.

Alton, which trailed 38-33 heading into the fourth quarter got to within two points twice, at 42-40 and 45-43. But the Redhawks, behind 26 points from Morgan Taylor, didn’t relinquish the lead.

A rebound basket by Marist’s Jack Ellison made it 47-43 with 2:48 remaining in the game. Taylor then drove for a basket with two minutes left to make it 49-43.

A basket by Alton’s Kevin Caldwell Jr. got the Redbirds within 49-45. The Redbirds were led by Caldwell’s 19 points. Donovan Clay added 12 points.

Alton (9-3) was downed earlier in the day by Belleville West 72-53 in a semifinal, dropping the Redbirds into the third-place game. West beat Champaign Central in the championship game 62-61.

CENTRALIA – Drawing up the game-winning play Friday for Alton boys basketball required the use of neither X’s nor O’s.

“I looked at coach, seeing if he was going to call a timeout,” the Redbirds’ Kevin Caldwell Jr. said. “It didn’t look like he was going to call it. He just gave me that look, like, make a play.”

Caldwell did, rising up for a NBA-range 3-pointer with two seconds left that delivered the Alton Redbirds a dramatic 64-61 victory over the Mundelein Carmel Corsairs at the Centralia Holiday Tournament.

The victory sends the 9-1 Redbirds to the semifinals of the 75th annual tourney to play top-seeded Belleville West at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The Maroons survived a scare from St. Louis Confluence Prep 65-63 in Friday’s second quarterfinal.

The Corsairs, who fall to 7-4, were poised to celebrate their upset when Jonathan Roeser split the Redbirds defense for a layup that put Alton down 61-59 with 10 seconds remaining.

The Redbirds opted for Caldwell rather than timeout. The senior, who beat Belleville East on a similar shot last season, brought the ball upcourt and, before the defense could engage, launched a 3 from well beyond the top of the key to win it.

“I can shoot from that far,” Caldwell assured. “If felt right at the time to pull up. He didn’t have his hands up, so I pulled up and took the risk. … When it’s in the fourth quarter, I just try to come through for my teammates.”

Alton coach Eric Smith was not necessarily looking for Caldwell to make that particular play, just “for him to make the right play,” Smith said. “He’s done that quite a few times for us. If somebody was open, he would throw them the ball. But he made a play.”

Carmel was out of timeouts, but Roeser was emphatically signaling for time after Caldwell’s shot was good. The clock ran out, but officials convened, put 1.7 seconds back on the clock, awarded the timeout but assessed a technical that gave Alton two free throws that Caldwell missed.

Alton’s Donovan Clay was fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass and converted both free throws to account for the final three-point margin after Carmel’s half-court 3 sailed over the backboard.

Caldwell led the Redbirds with 15 points. Josh Rivers scored 13 points, Malik Smith had 12, and Darrell Smith and Ahmad Sanders both added nine points for Alton. Caldwell was just 4 of 14 from the field, including 1 of 6 from the arc, before nailing the game-winner. “When it mattered, he made a shot,” Eric Smith said.

Alton led 34-28 at halftime, but the Corsairs produced 10 points from their first four possessions of the third quarter to take a 38-36 lead less than two minutes into the quarter. Carmel’s Evan Myers made four 3-pointers and scored 14 of his 16 points in the third quarter. Kimahri Wilson, a 5-foot-11 freshman, led the Corsairs with 18 points and eight rebounds. He had 11 points in the opening quarter.

“They battled and they fought, they ran good stuff that gave us a little bit of trouble in some aspects,” Eric Smith said of the Corsairs. “We’ve got to get better at some things. But we just keep finding a way to win games. … What it just comes down to is that we keep talking about our kids’ resiliency.

“Everybody keeps trying to figure out how we’re 9-1. The answer is, we’ve got tough, resilient kids.”

Now, the Redbirds’ face a challenge unlike any from their first 10 games when they meet West in the semifinals. The Maroons are 10-1 and ranked No. 4 in the Class 4A state poll.

“You play good teams like that,” Caldwell said, “you see how good you are and where you stand.”

Alton’s first game after the holidays will bring West to Alton High on Jan. 5 with first place in the Southwestern Conference standings on the line. Playing the Maroons before that SWC showdown is not a concern for the Redbirds coach.

“Game’s a game,” Smith said. “These kids don’t care. They just want to lace them up and go play.”

GODFREY — The Alton Redbirds are still waiting to hit their stride shooting the basketball. But if the Redbirds continue to play defense and keep handling the basketball without error, those elements make up for less than stellar shooting.

Alton didn’t shoot it particularly well Tuesday against Belleville East, but the Redbirds did play defense. They forced 23 turnovers and handled it as well as possible with just five miscues, and Alton used big runs in the second and fourth quarters to pull away from the Lancers, 58-35, in Southwestern Conference play at Alton High School.

Alton (7-1, 5-0) kept pace with conference favorite Belleville West, a 72-50 winner over O’Fallon, and goes into the holiday break tied for first in the conference. Both the Redbirds and Maroons will play in the Centralia Holiday Tournament after Christmas.

“Our main focus should be on defense though because we’ve got a lot of guys that can score the basketball,” said Alton junior forward Malik Smith, who led all scorers with 14 points. “… That’s really good for us (holding East to 35 points). We need to keep up the defense and focus on that.”

The Redbirds, after a bit of a slow start falling behind 12-11 after the first quarter, limited the Lancers (5-5, 1-4) to four second-quarter points and included a 12-0 Redbirds run to turn a 16-14 deficit into a 26-16 halftime lead.

Alton also outscored Belleville East 20-4 in the fourth quarter and limited the Lancers to just 2 of 17 shooting in the second and fourth quarters while forcing 23 turnovers for the game.

“We did some things a little bit better tonight,” Alton coach Eric Smith said. “At halftime, we were still a little bit concerned because we just take too many chances. We take ourselves out of plays. We’ll guard hard for one or two passes and then we try for the easy way out to get a steal. We’ve got kids that can play if they. We’ve just got to commit to sitting down and guarding and if we do that, I think we’ll be alright.

“Against teams that are going to move the ball a little bit more and do some different things against us, we’ve got to do a little bit better job.”

Alton, which was coming off a 81-75 overtime victory over Collinsville, balanced the scoring a little better Tuesday than it did against the Kahoks, where only four players accounted for the 81 points.

After four players scored last Friday, Alton put 10 players in the scorebook, including senior guard Kevin Caldwell Jr. with 12 points and junior Donovan Clay’s 11 points off the bench.

“A lot of people scored tonight, which is good,” Malik Smith said. “In the Collinsville game, only four people got in the boxscore. We’ve got to do better and just keep moving the ball and getting our open shots.

“We’re doing really well and everybody’s just unselfish. It shows and it helps a lot with the team and in our offense.”

What was most impressive for an Alton team that likes to push the tempo and play at a high pace is the Redbirds took care of the basketball, only turning it over five times.

“They pressed us a little bit, but obviously at the beginning, we had a little trouble getting into our offense,” Eric Smith said. “But we’ve got some kids we can put on the floor that can do some things with the basketball. That’s not necessarily a total surprise. The only thing it does kind of mean to me is the same thing we talked to them about at halftime, that tempo was terrible for us. If we have a little bit higher turnovers, we understand that because we usually means we’re trying to play a little bit faster.

“… Tonight’s games are the ones we’ve kind of struggled with the last couple years. Finals, got out of school early, we didn’t have a huge student section. We told them before the game the formula scares us a little bit because we came out a little flat. Those have been ones that have kind of scared us in the past, but it just shows our kids. Our kids are resilient. Theyll fight and they’ll compete. It’s kind of showing in our record.”

Alton held Belleville East, which got 10 points from senior Laylen Lacey, to 29 percent from the floor (10 of 34) but was just 19 for 54 itself (35 percent).

“Our percentage has not been good, but we still scored 58 tonight and that’s probably our lowest point total for the season so far,” Eric Smith said. “We still score points, but we hope at some point in time our shooters are going to shoot a little bit better percentage-wise.

Playing four of the first five conference games at home means the Redbirds have held serve defending their court. To stay at the top of the conference, Alton will now have to become as coach Smith said, “Road warriors.”

“When it comes down to it, they did their jobs,” Eric Smith said. “They held the fort for the first half. We’ll give them a couple days here where they can get back to being healthy because we’re kind of beat up. But we’ve played some really good teams. We’ve played some OK basketball. There’s obviously some room for us to improve. I think we feel good about where we’re at. The kids are genuinely excited about where we’re at and what the possibilities are for them to accomplish some things.”

“It’s good to keep pushing forward because we know we’ve got some big games coming up,” Malik Smith said.

–

ALTON 58, BELLEVILLE EAST 35

East 12 4 15 4 — 35

Alton 11 15 12 20 — 58

Belleville East (5-5, 1-4) — Lacey 10, Barnes 2, Williams 2, May 3, Hughes 2, K. Waller 2, Yates 6, Adams 8. 2FG-7, 3FG-3, FT-12, PF-19.

Alton (7-1, 5-0) — Woods 2, Sanders 2, Caldwell 12, Miller 5, K. Rivers 2, D. Smith 4, Clay 11, J. Rivers 4, M. Smith 14, Jam. Jones 2. 2FG-14, 3FG-5, FT-15, PF-12.

GODFREY – Collinsville boys basketball coach Darin Lee is already a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

The Kahoks are doing their part to send Alton coach Eric Smith there.

The Redbirds pushed their record vs. Collinsville to 12-1 with Smith as coach after Alton fended off the Kahoks 81-75 in overtime Friday night in a Southwestern Conference game at Alton High.

The Redbirds, who have won their last 11 meetings with the Kahoks, improve to 6-1 and 4-0 in the SWC. Collinsville erased a seven-point deficit with 1:15 left in the fourth quarter to force OT, but fell to 4-5 and 0-4 in the league.

Collinsville’s Marshall Harrison hit a top of the key 3-pointer off an inbounds play with five seconds left in regulation to draw the Kahoks even and bring a four-minute overtime.

But a Donovan Clay 3-pointer and a Kevin Caldwell Jr., drive to the rim in transition put the Redbirds up five points in the first minute of OT and the Kahoks could not keep pace. Alton opened the door to a comeback by sending Collinsville to the foul line 12 times – it made 11 – in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter with the Redbirds unrelentingly pushing the pace with a lead.

But the tempo and Alton aggression – “We like a frenetic pace,” Smith said – that provided opportunity for the Kahoks in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter buried them in the four-minute OT that saw the Redbirds score 15 points.

“In our opinion, we have to play a certain style to be competitive, to keep our kids competitive,” Smith said. “We’re not a walk it up and stand in a 2-3 and try to do different things – we may have to do some of that stuff to stay in games – but that’s not us. We have to play a certain way.”

Smith remains 300 wins and 14 seasons shy of Hall of Fame eligibility, but the sixth-year Redbirds coach did reach a milestone with career victory No. 100. Smith joins Stan McAfoos (209 wins), Ralph Sterrett (140) and Lee Bennett (100) in a 100-wins club limited to four coaches in Redbirds history.

The importance of 100 to Smith is well short of profound – “Nothing,” he said of its meaning – but his place alongside those three other AHS coaches is embraced. “When I got here, just looking at the Hall of Fame and all the people that have gotten in, it’s a pretty big deal,” Smith said.

Alton, which is back home Tuesday for a SWC game with Belleville East, was in tight with Collinsville throughout. Lee, who remains eight victories shy of 600 in a prep coaching career split between Vienna, Nashville and Collinsville, had four sophomores on the court for stretches, but the Kahoks refused to back off.

Ray’Sean Taylor, a 6-foot soph, led the Kahoks with 31 points, including a 13-for-14 performance from the foul line after halftime. Braden Lamp, the lone senior in a seven-player rotation, scored 16 points for Collinsville.

Alton, which trailed by as many as five points in the second quarter and led by as many as seven points in the third, got another big night from Caldwell. He scored 29 points on 9 of 14 shooting from the field, including 4 of 8 from the arc.

“He does a lot of things out on the court for us,” Smith said. “The nice part about it, in my humble opinion, the reason we’re successful is that we have someone like Kevin and we have other kids who do a lot of things, too. We put some pretty good kids out on the floor around him.”

Just four Redbirds scored in the victory, but all were in double figures. Malik Smith scored 21 points, Donovan Clay had 17 and Josh Rivers had 14 off the bench for Alton. Other than Caldwell, the Redbirds were 5 of 21 from 3-point range. But both Malik Smith and Clay knocked down treys in vital possessions.

“We’re not bad shooters,” Smith said. “Our percentage is not really good right now, as a team, but we’ll get to a point when we start making 3s and we’ll be dangerous. We’ve can put five kids out there that can make that shot consistently. But it’s nice to see we can win without relying on that.”

ALTON 81, COLLINSVILLE 75 (OT)

Collinsville 14 13 15 24 (9) — 75

Alton 13 16 16 21 (15) — 81

Collinsville (4-5, 0-4) – Taylor 31, Lamp 16, Harrison 8, Molton 9, Jones 7, Baker 2, Smith 2.

Alton (6-1, 4-0) – Caldwell Jr. 29, M. Smith 21, Clay 17, Rivers 14.

GODFREY – A hard-fought defeat to the now 7-0 St. Mary’s Dragons is all that separates Alton Redbirds boys basketball from a perfect start through six games.

The lesson learned by the Redbirds from that Alton Tip-Off Classic loss, coach Eric Smith said, was “that we’re decent.”

The coach’s take from the Redbirds’ hard-fought 75-71 victory over the East St. Louis Flyers on Friday night at Alton High? “That we’re a heck of a lot tougher than I thought we were,” Smith said.

The Redbirds pushed their record to 5-1, including a 2-0 getaway in the Southwestern Conference, with a stirring second-half rally to beat a Flyers squad ranked No. 5 in the Class 3A state poll. East Side is 4-2 and 2-1 in the SWC.

“Tonight, we showed stretches where we struggled a little bit,” Smith said. “But (the Flyers) will do that to you. They’re really good.”

East Side’s 12-0 run in the second quarter left Alton down 35-20. But the Redbirds, who were drubbed by the Flyers 69-52 and 76-36 in last season’s two SWC dates, produced game-changing surges in each of the final two quarters.

“Shows we’ve got a lot of fight,” Alton senior Kevin Caldwell Jr. said. “Kind of a team-defining moment that we came back and fought and got the win like that.”

All five Alton starters scored in double figures, with juniors Malik Smith and Donovan Clay both at 16 points, junior Ahmad Sanders at 13, senior Darrell Smith at 11 and Caldwell at 10.

“This is the senior group that’s been around awhile, worked their tails off for us,” Eric Smith said Friday of a roster five seniors deep with Jacoby Jones, Jamal Jones and Brandon Droste joining Smith and Caldwell. “We’re not where we’re at if (Darrell Smith) doesn’t play the way he does tonight. That’s a credit to those kids.”

The triumph also moved Eric Smith within one win of becoming the fourth coach in Alton Redbirds history to reach 100 victories. The Redbirds will try to deliver their coach that milestone Friday night when Collinsville visits AHS.

Smith will join Stan McAfoos (209-220 in 17 seasons from 1977-94), Ralph Sterrett (140-95 in nine seasons from 1964-73) and Lee Bennett (100-27 in four seasons from 2003-07). Only Bennett hit triple-digit wins faster than Smith, who is 99-53 in his sixth season at Alton.

Smith win No. 99 came against an East Side program featuring a pair of Division I prospects in 6-foot-7 Terrance Hargrove Jr. and 6-9 Joe Reece, a transfer from Vashon in St. Louis. Hargrove, an uncommitted junior, led all scorers with 22 points. Reece, a senior signed with Old Dominion, scored 17.

“Going to the hole, making some kicks, doing the right thing on offense, being patient,” Darrell Smith said. “That’s what got us the win.”

And the Redbirds’ depth was crucial with Caldwell, Darrell Smith and Clay playing through foul trouble. Alton closed the second quarter with seven unanswered points to draw within 35-27 at the half.

“Halftime, we appreciated our guys that came off the bench and did their job,” Caldwell said. “To cut that lead down with guys in foul trouble, that was really important. … We got some real big minutes from those guys. That’s what we preach a lot, do your job, we’ll win games.”

The East Side lead was 10 points midway through the third quarter when Alton got three 3-pointers – one from Caldwell and two from Clay – in a two-minute stretch to trigger a comeback tying the score at 52 entering the fourth quarter.

“We haven’t shot the ball really, really well so far,” said coach Smith, whose team finished 4 of 10 from 3-point range. “We’ve had some games with a high point total, but we haven’t shot it great. We’ve got four kids who can stand around the arc and shoot it and that will come. When we can do that, we can be scary.”

With East Side misfiring from 3-point territory on four straight possessions, the Redbirds turned a 62-60 deficit into a 69-62 lead on four points from Malik Smith, three from Sanders and two from Caldwell, who had a steal and two assists to open teammates for layups during the 9-0 run.

“I like seeing my teammates score,” Caldwell said. “As a point guard, a leader of the team, that’s my job to make sure my teammates do well.”

The Flyers twice cut Alton’s late lead to three. But Sanders’ 3-pointer and a driving score from Charles Miller grew the margin back to eight (74-66) for AHS. Hargrove’s basket and James Collins’ 3 trimmed the Redbirds’ lead to 74-71 with 41 seconds left.

Alton would make just 1 of 4 free throws in the final 30 seconds, but held on to the approval of most of the big crowd at AHS.

“We’d like to get better. And we’d like to make some free throws,” Caldwell said with a smile. “We can’t be satisfied.”