Red-hot Herb Martin leads Edwardsville past Ladue for first MICDS holiday tourney title

The Edwardsville senior guard poured in a game-high 31 points to lead the Tigers to a 71-69 win over previously-unbeaten Ladue in the Don Maurer Holiday Invitational boys basketball championship game Monday night at MICDS.

It was Martin’s third output of more than 30 points in the Tigers’ four games at the MICDS holiday tourney. He had 32 points in an opening-round win over Ritenour, 22 points against Francis Howell in the quarterfinals and a career-high 33 points in Saturday’s semifinal win over Kirkwood.

Martin scored a total of 40 points in his four MICDS tourney games last season, but far surpassed that early in Game 2 and kept going all the way to the final buzzer Monday.

“I guess the rims just sing to me,” Martin said. “I’ve worked real hard in this gym the past three years, going from a sophomore playing minimal minutes to playing big minutes. I feel like it’s really working out.”

The graduation of last year’s leading scorers, Malik Allen and AJ Tillman, has cleared the way for Martin to take control of the Edwardsville offense and he’s done just that this season by nearly tripling his scoring average from a year ago.

“It’s Herb’s time. Herb has really matured into, I think, the best point guard in the St. Louis area,” Tigers coach Dustin Battas said. “He does a lot of work behind the scenes. Before what people see on the court, he’s already put in hours to be ready to go. He’s certainly the engine that makes our team go.”

Martin was efficient against the Rams, finishing 9-for-13 from the floor and 12-of-14 at the free throw line.

“He’s a very good guard,” Ladue coach Chad Anderson said. “He gets to the rim really well. We allowed it, but we’ll learn from it, and I think this game is gonna help us.”

Tigers claim first MICDS title

In just its third year in the MICDS holiday tourney, No. 2 seed Edwardsville (11-1) — which is the No. 3 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings — won its first championship after a fourth-place finish last season.

“This is a big tournament, and we have a lot of respect for the teams here,” Battas said. “So, for us to win it is certainly an achievement that we’re proud of.”

Rams fall short in title defense

Top-seeded Ladue (9-1) — ranked third among area large schools — was seeking its fourth MICDS tourney title and second in succession.

“Overall, I was really proud of our kids,” Anderson said. “We had a not-so-good first quarter and kind of battled back in the third and had a one-possession game, but had some costly turnovers and missed opportunities there late.”

Tigers’ hot start

Edwardsville took control early with a strong opening half.

The Tigers enjoyed leads of 23-13 after one quarter and 41-26 at the half. Martin was key to the explosion with a game-high 17 points in the first 16 minutes on 7-of-9 shooting from the floor, including knocking down his first four shots in an 11-point first quarter.

“It was a good feeling to have the lead at halftime and be able to take on that second half with some confidence,” Battas said. “We thought our guys really came out and executed things we wanted to do offensively and defensively. It’s a testament to our guys and their preparation.”

The 23 points allowed in the first was the most the Rams had given up in a quarter this season and the 15-point halftime deficit was their biggest after any period this season.

“I would say we had some offensive execution issues. They’re a good defensive team and they took us out of our rhythm a little bit, but I didn’t think we were very aggressive,” Anderson said. “And then defensively, they’ve got a lot of good players, and they took advantage of some open shots.”

Rams mount a comeback

Ladue came into Monday’s final with a 44-4 record in its last 48 games, so no one in the gym expected the Rams to go down without a fight.

Ladue outscored Edwardsville 23-17 in the third quarter to make it a nine-point game and later got it down to four and had possession of the ball in the final minute, but Martin produced a pair of big defensive plays with time winding down.

He then hit three of four free throws down the stretch to expand the lead enough that Jack Edgerton’s 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds left could only make the final deficit two points.

Edgerton finished with a team-high 23 points for Ladue.

“The effort of our guys not quitting is a good character builder for us,” Anderson said. “We’ve had a few games this year where we’ve had to do that, and we ended up on the winning side of things. We’ve just got to learn from some mistakes here and there.”

Up next

Edwardsville will be back in action Thursday with a recently added home game against Dieterich, which is a small school near Effingham.

The Tigers will then begin the meat of their Southwestern Conference schedule with a Jan. 7 home contest against East St. Louis.

“We’ve got some things we want to get better at, even though we’ve had some success,” Battas said. “We know the Southwestern Conference is gonna be really tight, so we’ll come back after break and really have to be playing our best basketball to have some success in our league.”

Ladue — which was the Class 5 runner-up two years ago and went 26-3 last season — will be back in action Jan. 7, when it hosts Parkway Central in its Suburban Conference Red Pool opener.

“We always talk about breaking the season in thirds,” Anderson said. “This would be the first third and now we turn the corner to 2025, and you’ve got January that’s that middle third. I’m hoping the way we’ve been playing will help us in January.”