Love scores 16, Townsend 13 as Tigers defeat Lancers 62-54

EDWARDSVILLE – Junior point guard Que Love led the way with 16 points, while senior Jaylen Townsend added 13 as Edwardsville defeated Belleville East in a hard-fought 62-54 win Tuesday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

The Tigers went on a first-quarter run that saw them take an early 10-point lead, then saw the Lancers go on a run led by B’Aunce Carter that cut the lead down to three before a 9-2 run via three straight three-point baskets helped Edwardsville pull away again. Free throw shooting in the fourth quarter made the difference, as Edwardsville went 12-for-16 at the line to help put things away.

“We did. It became a free throw contest there late in the fourth quarter,” said Tigers coach Lori Blade, “but I’ll tell you what – they are awfully good defensively, and awfully talented. But I’m really proud of our kids’ effort once again, and some of the things we that we did. We didn’t do some things well, and it was ugly at times, but it was a great team win for us.”

Free-throw shooting is something the Edwardsville players take much pride in, and the players work hard in practice to perfect their shooting at the line.

“Free throw shooting is important in games; we know that,” Blade said. “For postseason, for games like this, whatever. But we take a lot of pride in that, we take a lot of pride in getting the repetitions in, so that hopefully, it’s just muscles, memory and mind over matter, more than anything because free throw’s so mental. And the kids, they put in a lot of extra time and effort in this program. And most of the time, it’s benefitted them.”

Being able to bounce back after East came to within three and hit the three-pointers changed the complexion of the game.

“We knew coming in that was going to be the thing,” Blade said, “is we couldn’t let their runs extend. We had, per se, to stop the bleeding, because they’re going to make runs at you. We talked about that at halftime even, and we just have to try and slow it down, but we did hit some big shots when they got on that major run.”

It was a typical game in the Southwestern Conference between two of the better teams in the league, one that was hard fought to the end.

“Yeah, you know, when we get two of the storied teams in the Southwestern Conference, it’s always a battle,” said Lancer coach Amanda Kempis, “and we thought we’d hold it a little bit closer, but we just kind of dug ourselves a hole in the first quarter, came out a little flat, didn’t hit a lot of shots, the threes and free throws that we’ve usually been hitting just weren’t going in tonight. So, I thought kind of those things combined, with our flat first quarter, and our lack of shooting and their hot shooting. I mean, they are a very, very good shooting team, and that’s tough to defend. So I thought once we got ourselves in the hole, it was just hard to get out of it. I thought we played three really hard quarter after that, so that’s good to see, and hopefully something to build off of.”

Carter did lead the third quarter charge after getting into early foul trouble, but Kemezys also agreed that the three three-pointers spelled a big difference in the game.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Kemezys said. “B’Aunce kind of had a tough first quarter, and I don’t think they were bad fouls, just fouls within the game that she got, and she did end up having to sit a little bit, so we challenged her at halftime to get back out there in the second half. And I thought she did a really good job, her teammates did a really good job in finding her, and she did a really great job finishing and keeping her composure because she was getting beat up down there. You talk about the Southwestern Conference, I mean, it’s a dogfight down there. Sometimes it looks like a wrestling match; I’d like to see the refs control it a little bit better than they did because I really hope nobody gets hurt in these tough games like that. But I thought she kept her composure, and she really made a big run for us, but like I said, they’re hot shooting was pretty good, and it seemed like we were making a run, then they hit a dagger three, and kind of kept their lead. Happy that our girls didn’t give up, and they fought until the very end, absolutely. But a good team like Edwardsville, you’ve got to make sure you can’t give a quarter away, and you can’t have an off-shooting night.”

The two teams started the game by trading baskets on both ends of the floor, making the early score 6-6. The Tigers then went on a 10-0 run behind a pair of Townsend free throws, a basket from Sydney Harris and back-to-back threes from Love and Kylie Burg to take a 16-6 lead, forcing East to a time out. A Bryce Dowell free throw and Nyah Ford basket cut the lead to 16-9 before Love hit a three at the siren to give Edwardsville a 19-9 lead at quarter time.

The two sides traded baskets for much of the second quarter, with the score being 25-15 before Ford scored four straight points on a pair of free throws and a basket to cut the Tiger lead to 25-19, forcing Edwardsville to call a time out with 4:04 left in the half. After an exchange of baskets, Townsend hit a three from the side and a pair of free throws shortly before the buzzer to make the halftime score 32-21 for Edwardsville.

The Lancers started the second half on a Carter-led 8-0 run, scoring mostly from inside to cut the lead to 32-29. Harris and Love hit back-to-back threes to up the lead back to nine, and after another Carter basket, Townsend hit another three to make the score 41-31 for the Tigers. Edwardsville ended the period on a 5-4 run, with Maddie Stephen getting a great pass inside to score at the buzzer to make it 46-35 for Edwardsville at three-quarter time.

The fourth quarter started out with a flurry of free throws, as the Tigers took a 53-40 lead in the first three minutes of the period. The Tigers eventually extended their lead to 56-41 when Carter fouled out with 3:17 left. The Lancers would outscore Edwardsville 13-6 the rest of the quarter, but the Tigers free throw shooting eventually won out the day as Edwardsville went on to their 62-54 win.

In addition to Love and Townsend, Morgan Hulme had nine points, Harris scored eight and Maria Smith scored six for the Tigers. Dowell led East with 15 points, Carter had 14 and Ford added 10.

The Lancers saw a seven-game winning streak snapped, but have been running on a tidal wave of emotion. East won the Highland Invitational over Civic Memorial on Sunday night and recently got back senior guard Kaylah Rainey from open heart surgery. That will provide the Lancers a big lift down the stretch run of the regular season.

“Oh, absolutely,” Kemezys said. “And it kind of started even before Kaylah was back, kind of at the beginning of January, that we’ve just we’ve been up in our defensive intensity, and been playing a lot better since then. And then, Kaylah kind of came along with that wave, and we’ve been playing very well lately. I think the girls have done a really good job of not riding the emotions too much, that they’re using it in a positive way and using it for positive energy. Like I said, I wish that we could have seen a little more of that in the first quarter, but I think we saw a little bit of it the rest of the game. And hopefully, that’s what we continue to see the rest of the season here.”

Both Love and Townsend have become a calming influence for the Tigers on the floor, and it serves the team very well, indeed.

“That’s what they have to do,” Blade said. “They’re in charge of us on the floor, and defensively, they do a great job, and they’re mature enough now, that they understand most of this. They just take a lot of pride in being in charge of the kids and doing what they need to do. Defensively, Jaylen did a great job on Dowell again; she got some run outs on us, but she did a great job. I thought Morgan did a great job on B’Aunce, and they struggled shooting threes, there’s no doubt. They hit some of those, then that changes everything, and that’s what we gave them tonight. But they came out, hammering us in the third quarter with B’Aunce. But, like I said, we weathered the storm tonight, and I’m really proud. It was gut check time there for a little while, and we responded really well.”

And this was an important win for the Tigers, not only for the conference standings but also for seedings come regional time next month.

“You know what? This was a huge conference win, but this was a huge win for seedings for the post-season,” Blade said. “So it was just important. And they’ve had everything, they’re playing really well right now, on a lot of emotion with Rainey coming back. But we knew it was going to be a tough game for us, no matter what. With Rainey back there, to me, still, to this point, they’re the team to beat, they really are. They have the experience back, they have everything. It’s just our kids executed a little bit better today, and hit some key shots.”

The Tigers are now 22-2 on the year, and go on the road for their next games, playing at Belleville West on Thursday night, then going across the river to play at Lutheran North Jan. 28. The Lancers fell to 15-10 and host East St. Louis on Thursday night, then play at O’Fallon Jan. 29. Tip-off times for all games will be 7:30 p.m.

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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Dan Brannan also contributed to this story

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