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EDWARDSVILLE - Que Love hit three straight three-pointers en route to a 20-point night, and the three-point shooting by Edwardsville was a big key in the game as the Tigers defeated O'Fallon 61-47 in the opener of a girls-boys Southwestern Conference basketball doubleheader Friday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
The Panthers concentrated on stopping Sydney Harris defensively, not giving the Tigers' sophomore forward many good looks at the basket, and Love was able to capitalize on the opportunities with her early three-point shooting.
"We still just ran some different stuff," Edwardsville head coach Lori Blade said. "it's going to open up the other kids, because you've got two fellows that's going to come out and guard if we come out with five smaller kids that can pull it out, and that's what we went to. Everybody's going to key on Syd, we get that. We'll run some special stuff to her, she's got to be patient, she'll get it. There's still going to be four other kids on the floor that people have to guard, and luckily, we shot threes really well in the first half, and in the second half, we were much more aggressive going to the basket."
And with a game on Saturday against Parkway North in a shootout at St. Joseph's Academy set to go, Blade feels it's something similar to what the Tigers may face in February at the IHSA Class 4A state tournament.
"You know what? It is what it is," Blade said. "They're kids, they're young, they're resilient, and you've got to do it in the state tournament. So we're going to simulate as best we can the state tournament-type situation, and the kids will enjoy watching the boys game, and then go, and it'll be tomorrow, and we'll do stuff and get ready for Parkway. It won't be easy, but it's a good challenge for us."
Love's three-point barrage in the opening quarter was an example of the kind of leadership role that Love is very capable of doing.
"She took the leadership role tonight that you expect her to take," Blade said, "and that's what she's capable of doing. So often, she wants to get everybody else involved, and tonight, she did exactly what we needed her in one to take those shots, which she's very capable of doing."
Blade knows that Love is very confident in her shot-making abilities.
"She's very confident, which helps," Blade said. "But she understands that she's not going to force things. In the second half, she broke things down a lot better off the screens. Syd set great screens to get that open, because they're not going to help out on her, so it's hard to stop that ball, which will help."
Kylie Burg and Ariana Bennett also made big contributions off the bench, and Blade felt that the bench had some good quality minutes throughout the game,
"Her and Bennett both had really good minutes," Blade said. "Kylie can spread it out, Bennett's going to get in and guard hard. They just bring a different dynamic. They're not going to come out and guard Maria (Smith) and Katelynne (Roberts), and that's fine. We've got other kids that can come in and do different things than what they can. Everybody gave us good minutes, but our bench minutes tonight were probably the difference-maker."
The Panthers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead behind a pair of baskets by Kayla Gordon, but Smith hit on a three-point play and Love hit her first three of the quarter to give Edwardsville the lead at 6-4. Amelia Bell hit inside to tie the game at 6-6, but Love hit back-to-back threes to give the Tigers a 12-6 lead, and after a basket from Aubrey Mister, Burg scored on a three and Bennett scored on a reverse lay-in to give Edwardsville a 17-8 lead after the first quarter.
Bell hit a long two at the start of the second quarter to cut the Tiger lead to 17-10, but Elle Evans continued Edwardsville's hot three-point shooting hitting at the top of the key to make it 20-10. After a three-point play from Tyana Lovelace, Bell and Evans traded threes to make it 23-16, The half ended with exchanges of points on both sides, with Harris getting a lay-in before the buzzer to give the Tigers a 29-22 halftime lead.
The teams exchanged threes to open the second half, then after a Panther time out, Harris scored off a nice pass inside to give the Tigers a 34-25 lead. A three from Shannon Dowell cut the lead to six, but Edwardsville went on a 10-5 run the rest of the quarter, with Smith hitting on a three-point play and Love sinking a three before the buzzer to make it 44-33 after three quarters.
After Bell opened the final quarter with a basket, Edwardsville went on to outscore O'Fallon 17-14, with Harris and Love doing much of the damage as the Tigers went on to the 61-47 win.
Evans added 11 points for the Tigers, with Bennett scoring eight points and Harris and Burg both adding seven. Lovelace and Bell each had 11 points to lead O'Fallon, while Dowell chipped in with 10 points.e
The Tigers, now 15-1 on the year and facing Parkway North in the St. Joseph's Shootout Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., had an incredible effort all the way through, and Blade was very pleased with that.
"Yes, they did. They didn't give up," Blade said. "They knew it was going to be a physical task, but they did not give up. They grinded it out, and that's what I expected them to do. From my perspective, that was awesome to see, because I thought we did really, really some good things at times, and then at times, we kind of took some plays off. We've got to be able to do that for 32 minutes."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
