MASCOUTAH – After earning a first-round bye as the top seed in the 46th Annual Mascoutah Holiday Invitational, the Alton Redbirds cruised past Freeburg by a score of 68-28 Friday afternoon, setting up a rivalry game against O’Fallon in the semifinals.
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The Redbirds and Panthers met Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. to decide who would take the first spot in Sunday evening’s championship game.
Thanks to a strong first quarter, Alton was able to fend off O’Fallon by a final score of 59-43. The Redbirds improved to 12-1 on the season and will play Breese Central (12-0) on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. in the championship.
The Cougars beat Nashville (10-2) in the second semifinal by a score of 33-29.
Alton jumped out to a 4-0 lead against O’Fallon thanks to baskets from Jarius Powers and Talia Norman. The Panthers rallied to take a brief 7-6 lead, however, that would be their only lead of the game.
Alton’s Madeline Ducey answered back with a three-pointer that sparked a 17-point run to close out the first quarter. The Redbirds led 23-7 after the opening eight minutes.
Alton opened the second quarter on an 8-3 run that increased the lead to 31-10, eventually leading 34-20 at halftime.
“I feel like we took our foot off a little too soon. I think we got a little excited,” Alton head coach Deserea Howard said. “We just needed to finish that [half]. I was definitely happy that [the run] was there and trying to get the girls to understand that we have the potential to do it, we just have to get out there and do it.”
O’Fallon started to knock down some shots in the second half but there was still no threat down the stretch. Alton outscored the Panthers 25-23 in the second half.
Powers led Alton with 15 points and Norman had 12. Kiyoko Proctor, who played in her third game back since recovering from last season’s torn ACL, chipped in 14 points. Ducey ended up with six points, Kaylea Lacey had five, and Lauryn Wimbley had four.
O’Fallon was led by Haeli Tart with 13 points, Josie Christopher had nine, and Nakia McCottrell had eight.
Saturday’s contest was vastly different than a narrow 30-29 Alton win back on Dec. 12.
“I think [O’Fallon] just played a different style tonight,” Howard said. “That game [O’Fallon] sat in zone the whole time. That just kind of slowed the game down. We could have just played a different way, but we didn’t want to. We stuck to the game plan that we had been working on. That slowed the game down as well, but the goal was to come out on top.”
Now the Redbirds are 2-0 on the season against their Southwestern Conference rivals. The two’s final scheduled meeting is on Thursday, Jan. 30 at O’Fallon at 7:30 p.m. They of course could meet again in the postseason as well.
The Panthers will take on Nashville in the third-place game on Sunday at 4 p.m.
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