EDWARDSVILLE – It's still early in the season, but Edwardsville's girls basketballers aren't missing very many beats.
The Tigers got 22 points from Makenzie Silvey and 18 from Kate Martin in a 66-38 Southwestern Conference win over Belleville West at Lucco-Jackson Gym Thursday night. The win put the Tigers at 7-0 overall, 3-0 in the SWC while the Maroons dropped their first game of the year to fall to 6-1 overall, 1-1 in the league.
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“The kids played well,” Tiger coach Lori Blade said. “I thought we could have rebounded a little bit better than we did – that really concerns me – but overall, they were very unselfish with the ball, made the extra pass when they needed to find that better shot.
“Some of them are getting a little bit more comfortable in what we're trying to do and have a good understanding and everything, so we're getting better.”
Whatever problems the Tigers may have are certainly fixable, Blade thought. “They are fixable, that's for sure,” Blade said. “It's in the discipline side of it, and we have to fix that. But I'm proud of their effort right now and like I said, we're getting better. We'll break down the film and see what we need to do, but I'm very proud of their effort tonight.”
“We're a young team,” said Maroon coach Seth Garrett. “We really have one senior on the team; games like this, we go back to practice and say, 'we've got some things to work on'. You look at a scoreboard that looks like that, I don't have to convince them very much; they understand they we've got to get a little bit better out there.
“They're (Edwardsville) talented in every spot, they shoot it well from every spot. To beat them, you're going to have to guard them better than we did tonight. From the three-point line, they hit too many threes on us. I thought overall, we rebounded the ball pretty well with them; in the past, that's what has been our Achilles' heel. I thought the girls did a pretty good job of that, all things considered.”
Things got started slowly for the Tigers before they started to pull away from West, taking a 15-8 lead a quarter time and slowly expanding it to 38-23 at the long break. Silvey helped break open the game early in the third term with two three-point plays and a three-point shot that made it 49-23 midway through the third and the Tigers went from there.
Myriah Noodel-Hayward added eight points for the Tigers and Quierra Love, Criste'on Waters and Rachel Pranger six each for EHS in the win; West was led by Chamya Darough's 16 points, with Sydney Thurwalker adding eight and Kwanisha Quarles seven.
Edwardsville won the JV curtain-raiser 44-27 over the Maroons.
Next up for Edwardsville is a Saturday afternoon home date against Normal Community; the JV game tips at 2 p.m., followed by the varsity game. The encounter caps off busy week for the Tigers, having already taken on Belleville East and West heading into their game with the Iron. “With East, West and Normal, that's three quality programs,” Blade said. “Normal's good; they can shoot it well, so it'll be another good challenge for us.”
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Feeney, 56, is a native of Granite City and graduated from Granite City South in 1978. He was a part-time writer for the old Granite City Journal from 1979-84 before attending Eastern Illinois University in Charleston,
from which he earned his BA in journalism in 1988. He has worked for newspapers in Sikeston, Mo., Rocky Mount, N.C., Seneca, S.C. and in Charleston-Mattoon. He also worked for the old St. Clair County Suburban
Journals.
