Edwardsville's girls basketball team hits on all cylinders early, thumps O'Fallon 59-41
O'FALLON – When Edwardsville's girls basketball team is hitting on all cylinders, stopping them becomes an almost impossible task.
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Just ask O'Fallon, who saw the Tigers get off to a 17-0 start to the game, then open the second half on a 13-point run that helped EHS to a 59-41 Southwestern Conference win at O'Fallon's Panther Dome Thursday night.
The Tigers' opening-term blitz caused the Panthers to perhaps play a lot faster than they would have liked, felt OTHS coach Ryan Massey. “When you get playing that fast,” Massey said, “and you get rushed that much, it's hard. I mean, we were catching the ball and trying to do stuff with it before we even had it in our hands, and we've got to play a much more calm game offensively against them.
“They just put 82 points up on East St. Louis; I mean, they've been scoring in the high 60s and 70s almost every game in our conference. Defensively, I thought we battled and did some good things at times, but you've got to play 32 minutes against a team like that to have a chance.”
Edwardsville's execution was a key to their win, felt Tiger coach Lori Blade. “They're probably better than what that score shows, but we executed really well tonight,” Blade said. “That's the reason for that separation.
“I know Cryste'on (Waters) didn't score a lot of points tonight, but she played a great game; she had a great game rebounding, great game defensively. Without her, that game wasn't what it was. Our team defense was really good tonight.”
Defense, in fact, has been a key emphasis for EHS since their 70-68 loss to Collinsville Dec. 3. “If we've said anything numerous times, it's that,” Blade said. “We've harped on it and harped on it; you have to do that with those kids because they've got some slashers and some shooters and they're big in the middle.
“You're not going to guard those kids one-on-one, especially (Marta Durk), but when we didn't help and play team defense, they got to the rim or we fouled. Hopefully we can look at this film and see the importance of how good it was, because it was really good when we did it right.”
Rachel Pranger led the Tigers (14-1 overall, 5-1 SWC) with a 19-point performance, with Kate Martin putting up 15 points and Makenzie Silvey 11. O'Fallon was led by Tamia Cash's 13 points, with Celeste Akoro adding eight.
Next up for the Tigers is a Tuesday night home rematch against the Kahoks, and while it probably has been on the minds of the Tigers, Blade and her coaching staff hasn't placed a particular emphasis on it. “We haven't talked about it much, other than from the learning perspective,” Blade said, “not the loss, not anything like that.
“They're excited, I know; I'm sure everybody is, but we have to focus on doing our job, and if we do it defensively like we did tonight, I really like our chances. I think we've come a long way since that game, so it'll be interesting.”
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