EDWARDSVILLE - Sophomore forward Sydney Harris led Edwardsville once again with 14 points, while both senior guard Que Love and sophomore forward Elle Evans added 12 each as the Tigers got balanced scoring and ran away in the second half to take a 67-16 win over Alton in a Southwestern Conference game Friday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
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Edwardsville led at halftime 30-10, but at the start of the second half, went on a 19-0 run in the opening six minutes, going out to a 49-10 lead and never looking back in going on to the win.
"I thought we were a little bit better second half defensively," said Edwardsville coach Lori Blade. "We moved the ball better offensively we were helping and better position and everything. We got some transition, but we hit a little bit more, used our legs a little bit better, and hit some open shots in the second half, which was good to see."
The Tigers had 10 different players scoring at least one point in the game, which pleased Blade.
"I expect that," Blade said, "unselfish, and we were moving the ball pretty good the second half. But we just looked really out of synch the first half, I thought. We're delayed in cuts, delayed in seeing some things inside that were there, so we'll see, but much better second half."
The Tigers' mindset in games doesn't change much at all from game to game, no matter the situation or the score.
"You know what? It's hard to have the same mindset every game," Blade said, "but that's what we try to do. And I tell them we're not playing according to the score, we don't expect officials to call the game according to the score. We've just got to try to play and execute to the best of our ability in whatever defense they're in. And we switched a lot of things up today, and I tried to challenge them mentally. And some of them did really well, and some of them, we didn't communicate as a team, and that's a weakness that we have at times."
Alton has a very young team, with only one senior --- Danita Smith --- on its roster, with a total of three freshmen and two sophomores on the varsity. The Redbirds' approach was concentrating on playing their game.
"Our mindset today was just play our game," said Alton head coach Deserea Howard, "you know, not get caught up in playing the hype of playing Edwardsville, and definitely not to let them make us rush and get out of what we wanted to do. And I know the scoreboard doesn't show it, but these girls are working hard, and it showed tonight. We forced them to make some turnovers, we slacked up a little in our transition defense, and it cost us. But you know, we're growing as a team."
The Redbirds did a good job of forcing the Tigers to play at their tempo in the first half, trailing only 30-10 at halftime. Edwardsville came out in the second half with the decisive run at the start of the third quarter, and the inexperience of Alton showed.
"We're a really young, inexperienced team," Howard said, "and I thought I saw it in the first half. I definitely saw it. We were doing what we wanted to do, and in the second half, I think we got a little antsy, and when you get antsy against a team like that, they can make a quick 10-0 run, and that kind of happened to us."
Germayia Wallace, a junior forward, scored 14 of the Redbirds' 16 points, including a pair of threes that were Alton's only points of the second half. Wallace played well despite drawing four fouls in the first half, and is capable of shooting the ball from anywhere on the floor.
"It does that," Howard said. "And teams know that she's a returner, and they kind of focus on her having those fouls, and having to sit out the majority of the game didn't help our situation. But I think she played big, and kept her head, which is hard to do when you have this foul situation happening."
The Redbirds played very hard for the entire 32 minutes and kept coming throughout, which was a feather in the team's caps.
"Ten of our 13 kids played JV right before the varsity game," Howard said. "So to come out and give another four full quarters, and stay mentally engaged I think is the biggest thing I'm noticing out of these kids, and that's the thing I'm most proud of now."
And the Redbirds are gaining valuable experience which will benefit the teams and the program in the years ahead, and Howard knows that lessons learned now will be beneficial to the team later.
"I am," Howard said. "That's our plan, to help the girls right now learn the game. They're getting big experience. There's majority freshmen on our team right now; we have one senior, so everybody's extremely young. They're getting a lot of experience. I kind of consider it like an AAU team. They're like a 14-under team playing a 17-under team every night, and they give me all the heart they have, and that's all I can ask for.
"Look for them in the future," Howard also said with a smile. "They're going to keep coming at it."
It only took Edwardsville 58 seconds to jump to an early 7-0 lead, starting with a three from Harris, a bank shot from Harris again and another bank shot from Evans, forcing an early Alton time out. Wallace put the Redbirds on the board with a banked three coming out of the time out, then Justice Anthony scored from the outside to make it 7-5. Baskets from Maria Smith and Love put the lead back to 11-5 before Wallace scored to make it 11-7, but then the Tigers outscored Alton 8-0 the rest of the way as free throws from Katelynne Roberts, and baskets from Smith, Love and Roberts made the score 19-7 after the first quarter.
Another Wallace basket at the start of the second quarter cut the lead to 19-9, but it would be the only basket of the second quarter for the Redbirds, as the Tigers went on a 10-0 run on a three-point play from Smith, a Macy Silvey free throw, a basket by Evans, a Roberts free throw, a Silvey basket and a free throw from Amanda Mills made it 29-9. Free throws from Wallace and Jacquelin Anderson made the score 30-10 for Edwardsville at halftime.
The Tigers started the third quarter by scoring the first 19 points of the period, starting with the first five from Harris on a three and a basket from outside. A pair of Roberts free throws, another basket from Harris, back-to-back threes from Love and Evans, and baskets from Harris and Kylie Burg made it 49-10 before a Wallace three snapped the string with exactly two minutes left in the quarter. The Tigers then got a basket and a three-point play from Love to make it 54-13 after the third quarter, forcing a running clock in the fourth.
The Tigers scored the first nine points of the final quarter before Wallace hit another three to cut the lead to 63-16, but basket from Evans and Ashlyn Hauk made the final score 67-16.
Besides Harris, Love and Evans, Roberts and Smith had nine points each, while Silvey scored four points, Hauk and Burg two points each and both Anderson and Ariana Bennett had one point each. Wallace and Anthony were the only two scorers for the Redbirds.
The Redbirds are now 3-18 on the year, and next play at Collinsville on Feb. 4, and are at home to Belleville East Feb. 6, with both games starting at 7:30 p.m. The Tigers are now are now 19-1, and play at Belleville East Tuesday and host Belleville West on Thursday, with both games also starting at 7:30 p.m. There's only one non-conference game left of the Tigers' schedule, Lutheran North, and Edwardsville has seen all the Southwestern Conference teams at least once now, with big games left at O'Fallon and East St. Louis in the remaining schedule.
"It is," Blade said. "We are back to conference play; I think we've got one more non-conference game, and we talked about that earlier. But, three weeks left. So it's time to put some things together, and get repaired, But we still have some tough conference games left, so its by no means over, and we just have to continue to get a little bit better, and see what we can put together."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
