GODFREY – There's more to than Alton High School senior athlete LaJarvia Brown than her long and triple jumping capabilities.

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When the Redbirds need a pick-me-up on the basketball court, Brown, a point guard, can do what's needed to help lift her team.

Case in point: Brown's 18-point effort against Springfield Lanphier in the Redbirds' 59-22 win in their final group-play game of the Alton Tipoff Classic Friday night.

The win put the Redbirds (1-1) into Saturday evening's third-place game against Jersey, which gets under way at 6 p.m. following the fifth-place game between Cahokia and the Lions (that game starts at 4:30 p.m.).

Friday's win came on the heels of an opening-night loss to Breese Mater Dei (who will take on Hardin-Calhoun for the championship Saturday night), a defeat that didn't sit well with Redbird coach Bob Rickman. “We just weren't ready,” Rickman said of Monday's loss. “It's hard to come out, after two weeks, with so many new players and have them ready to play and have them sub in, and then you deal with foul trouble and stuff like that, it makes it pretty difficult that we dealt with Monday night.

“Today, different story. We were able to rotate people; our rotations were a lot better. We didn't have a lot of bad matchups on the floor; it makes it a lot easier when we're moving the ball a lot better. I was worried about handling their pressure; they throw a lot of different things at you, which is hard for a young team to adjust to. We did a really good job handling it. I mean, we had some moments where we were rattled; we calmed it down and I'm really proud of the girls on how the girls responded tonight.”

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“I think it's mostly we learned from Monday night,” Brown said. “We tried to correct the things we did wrong from Monday, so that was the goal coming into the game, to be in control of it and play our own game.

“It felt great; it felt like we were all in synch with each other and we're finally playing as a team.”

Brown wasn't the only contributor to the Alton win; Cri'Shonna Hickman added 11 points for the Redbirds and Kenya Burnett had nine. But what Rickman was really pleased with was that he was able to get everyone on the roster some quality floor time, which could pay dividends as the season goes on.

“We come out tomorrow against a Jersey team that's a good, solid team,” Rickman said. “They're going to really push us and challenge us, so we'll have to be ready for it. It's a quick turnaround, but it was nice we could get some girls off the floor, have their legs a little bit fresher. We know it'll be a good matchup.”

Jeniya Griffin led the Lions (0-2) with a seven-point night, with Jaala Smylie adding four points.

After Saturday's game, the Redbirds are off until Dec. 1, when they host Belleville East in both team's Southwestern Conference opener.

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