BETHALTO – The Civic Memorial Lady Eagles took their record to 10-0 Friday night with a 48-40 Mississippi Valley Conference win over Triad.
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The Knights fell to 7-2 on the season, with two losses against current Associated Press top 10 ranked teams. The Eagles are ranked No. 3 in IHSA Class 3A in the latest AP polls, and Carlyle is ranked No. 5 in Class 2A, Triad’s other loss.
“This is why you play games like this, to get better. And we got better tonight,” Triad head coach Josh Hunt said postgame.
These two teams have a possibility of playing one another four more times this year, something Hunt is looking forward to.
“We’re in the same Christmas tournament, same mid-January tournament, we’ll obviously see them one more time in conference, and maybe a regional or a sectional. I’d love to come back here and play them in a sectional, it would be fun,” Hunt said.
CM’s Isabelle Edwards opened the game with a three as the Eagles opened on a 7-2 run. They eventually led 11-8 after the first quarter. The teams traded baskets throughout the second and CM still led at halftime 21-12.
The Knights made their move in the third quarter, going on an eight-point run to close the gap to 26-25. It started with Savannah Hildebrand’s basket and one, a basket from Makenna Witham, and a triple from Hildebrand.
CM pulled away again thanks to a couple of free throws from Allie Truetzschler and a well-timed three from Gracie Miller. Hildebrand answered with a three of her own, but then Miller dropped another to keep the lead at 34-28. Marlee Durbin scored four free throws at the end to take a 38-30 lead after three quarters.
“Gracie [Miller] was huge. She hit four huge threes for us today,” CM head coach Jeff Durbin said. “They were making their run, and Gracie Miller nails a three. I trust her anywhere. She crosses the court, and she can shoot from anywhere.”
CM got a couple more threes to open the fourth, one from Durbin and the other from Marley Ogden. That pushed the lead to 44-32. And that proved to be too much to overcome for the Knights.
Hildebrand led all scorers on the night with 19 points. Witham added 12 for the Knights and Erica Boyce had seven.
“I was watching her in warmups, and I can count on one finger how many she missed,” Durbin said regarding Hildebrand. “And she was shooting from the sideline, she was making them from the volleyball line. And we talked about that, we knew it. We did a pretty good job on her in the first half, but she hit some huge ones there late.”
Miller led CM with 14 points. Durbin, Ogden, and Avery Huddleston each scored seven. Truetzschler had six and Edwards had five.
A difference-making stat in this game was from the free throw line. CM went 15-16 from the line. The Knights went 2-4, not having nearly as many opportunities.
“It was a good battle; we just came up on the wrong end,” Hunt said. “We struggled in the first half making shots. We’re a really good shooting team, just one of those games where early game we didn’t have some shots fall.”
The Knights play road games at Carlinville and Collinsville coming up. They’ll play at home again on Thursday, Dec. 19 against Highland.
CM has a week off and will host Waterloo next Friday.