Tigers capture 17th straight win over Belleville West
EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's girls basketballers got out of the gates rather quickly Thursday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
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The Tigers stormed off to a big lead against Belleville West in a Southwestern Conference clash, limiting the Maroons to just a single point in the opening term, getting out to a 17-1 lead at quarter time. The Tigers, coming off a tough win over Belleville East two nights previously, had no trouble with the Maroons, clamping down on West with tight defense and good shooting, going out to a 29-13 lead at the long break and never looking back on their way to a 62-23 win, taking their record to 21-1 overall and 9-1 in the SWC with their 17th straight win.
“We got out in transition, opened up the floor a little bit and found each other,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade after the win. “It was very unselfish, we pushed up the tempo and just had a good first four or five minutes.
“I was pleased with the overall effort and their mentality; it's been a long two weeks,” referring to the fact the Tigers have played quite a bit over the past two weeks with the win in the Carbondale Invitational last week and then the late win at Belleville East Tuesday night going into Thursday night's game. “Overall, I thought we put together a good 32 minutes. I thought we lost it a little bit in the second quarter mentally and tried to do a little too much again, but overall, I was really pleased with their effort.”
The Tigers did shoot the ball very well throughout the contest. “They did tonight, but they took good shots tonight,” Blade said. “We got good shots in transition with each other.”
Three Tiger players did wind up with double-figure scoring; Rachel Pranger led EHS with 20 points with Makenzie Silvey and Christ'eon Waters each ending up with 16 points; Jasmine Bishop had six points for Edwardsville and Kate Martin scored four.
The Maroons were led by Erika Harvey and B'Aunce Carter with eight points each, with Sydney Thurwalker getting four as West fell to 15-9 overall and 6-4 in the league.
The Maroons did defeat the Tigers in the junior-varsity curtain-raising game by the score of 42-39.
The Tigers travel to St. Louis County for a rescheduled clash with another traditional St. Louis-area girls basketball power, St. Joseph's Academy, at 5 p.m. Monday; the game was originally scheduled for Jan. 20 but was postponed following a winter storm hit the area.
Edwardsville follows Monday's game with a visit from Granite City at 6 p.m. Tuesday and a visit to East St. Louis at 6 p.m. Thursday.
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