EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville's girls basketball team didn't get off to the quickest of starts against Normal Community Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers, though, overcame the slow start as Rachel Pranger led EHS with 23 points to run out 69-49 winners over the Iron in a non-conference game at Lucco-Jackson Gym to take their record to 8-0 on the year and finish a week that saw them defeat Belleville East and Belleville West. Normal fell to 6-5 on the year.
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“They're a good team, a quality team; the do some good things and the first half, we had a slow start, then we pulled away a bit,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade. “There's still some things (the Tigers need to stop) – quit fouling and move our feet; they're fixable things. Second half, we valued possessions a lot better, which is important for us to be able to do.
“We spread it out a little bit in the second half, and that let us get a little bit movement in; we tried to do a little bit too much in transition, so we needed to slow it down as far as transition and decision-making. The second half, I was really happy with what they did.”
The Tigers got a spark from freshman Quierra Love coming off the bench; she wound up with 10 points and gave Edwardsville a lift when they needed one. “She's getting better all the time,” Blade said. “Her defense, we've talked about; we're leaving and not helping often enough, but that's just youth and inexperience. When she sees that, she understands the game really well.
“Once she sees it in film, she'll get it. I think she'll be able to fix that pretty well.”
One thing Blade likes about Love is her willingness to take tough assignments. “She'll take it in; for not being any bigger than she is (Love is listed at 5-4 on the Tiger roster), she'll go in and compete. Good point guards make poor decisions sometimes when they're young.
“You'd rather be able to rein them back in rather than push them to go try to do something. Good guards are going to throw the ball away sometimes when they're young and inexperienced; sometimes it's a little too much, but I couldn't ask for more out of her than what she's doing so far.”
Pranger's points came mostly from inside. “She rebounded well,” Blade said, “on the offensive end especially; she's got such good hands. If she can get a handle on it, good things are going to happen.”
The week was a difficult one for the Tigers with them taking on the Lancers, Maroons and Iron and winning all three games. “It was a long week, a tough week with three tough opponents,” Blade said. “With finals (exams at EHS) coming up, we'll take a little bit of time and prepare for Granite (City, Edwardsville's next opponent), then a big break there before we head north (to the Oswego East holiday tournament).”
In addition to Pranger's 23, Kate Martin and Makenzie Silvey had 13 points each to go with Love's 10. The Iron were led by Abby Felt's 16 points and Caelyn Steffens 11.
The Tiger JV won the day's curtain-raiser over Normal 51-37.
The Tigers' game against Granite City is set for Thursday night at home, with the JV game commencing at 6 p.m.; the Oswego East tournament takes place Dec. 27-30, with EHS returning to regular-season play at East St. Louis Jan. 3.
