Alton's girls play Quincy Notre Dame tight game, Brown leads in scoring with 14 points
GODFREY – Alton's girls basketball team hung in with Quincy Notre Dame for a good while during their Saturday evening game at Alton High's gym.
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The Redbirds, though, couldn't quite get over the top and dropped a 48-37 decision to the Raiders, who remained unbeaten at 7-0 with the win. Alton fell to 2-6 on the year.
Redbird coach Bob Rickman, though, found quite a bit of positives despite being defeated. “There's a lot of good things out of it,” Rickman said. “I think we have not been performing near where we're capable of performing other than, maybe, the (Springfield) Lanphier game (in the Redbirds' season-opening tournament), and after that, I don't know what happened.
“Today, I really liked how, after the Granite City game (in which the Warriors defeated the Redbirds Thursday night), the girls came out and responded; they got some confidence early in being able to handle the pressure a little bit better. That's something we talked about and we worked on. We're not quite there yet where we need to be, but we made some steps, and that's what I told the girls.”
The Raiders' shooting wasn't the best either; they only held a 19-17 lead at the half thanks to missed shots and pressure from the Redbird defense. “Our shooting percentage in the first half was probably the poorest it's been all year,” said Raider coach Eric Orne. “We just seemed to be not at ease with our shots. We were getting some good looks, but nothing was falling, so it seemed to frustrate our team a little bit; it showed in how we were playing.”
The opening minutes of the second half, though, were another story; the Raiders went on a run that extended the lead to 29-21 at three-quarter time. “The first three minutes of the second half, I believe, are always the most important,” Orne said. “I thought we got some steals, we got that eight-point lead again, which makes you feel a little more comfortable. We were getting to the basket a little better, we got some better looks.”
QND maintained the lead and extended it slightly in the final quarter; the Redbirds tried to make a run at the Raiders, but QND came up with answers when they were needed to hold off Alton to run out winners. The effort, however, made Rickman pleased.
“Really, the score, I don't think, was indicative of how hard-fought that game was,” Rickman said. “That's a good game for us, even though it's a loss.”
LaJarvia Brown led the Redbird scorers with 14 points, with Jewel Wagner and Cri'Shonna Hickman getting eight each. The Raiders were led by Olivia Hyer's game-high 15 points, with McKenzie Foley picking up 10 and Molly Penn nine.
The Redbirds wrap up their pre-holiday schedule with a Southwestern Conference game at home against Collinsville Thursday night, then have 11 days off before they head to Jefferson City, Mo., for the State Farm Holiday Invitational at Jefferson City Helias Dec. 28-30.
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