EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville had a big night from Rachel Pranger as the senior scored 25 points as the Tigers scored a 78-40 Southwestern Conference win over Collinsville at Lucco-Jackson Gym Tuesday night, the Tigers' first home game since winning the Visitation Christmas Tournament and defeating top-ranked Whitfield in the St. Joseph's Shootout last Saturday.
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Edwardsville went to 17-0 on the year, 7-0 in the SWC, with the win; the Kahoks fell to 4-10 overall, 1-6 in the league.
The game started out close early before the Tigers took control and never looked back. “It was back-and-forth there early and then we started getting a little bit of transition and a little bit of pressure on them,” said Tiger coach Lori Blade. “We sped them up a little bit and that affected their shooting because they're good shooters, that's for sure; they play hard and do a good job.
“I thought our size was a big factor.”
The Tigers worked to get the ball inside for their points early on. “That's kind of what we wanted to do,” Blade said. “We wanted to mix it up a little bit.”
Tuesday was the Tigers' first home game since their Dec. 20 win over East St. Louis. “It's been awhile, hasn't it?,” Blade said with a smile when asked about being back home for the first time in three weeks, “but we're home today and on Friday (with a league boys-girls doubleheader against Alton), so that part's kind of nice; we're excited to be back and playing here.”
Once the Tigers got going, stopping them was no easy task; they got out to a 22-13 lead at quarter time and expanded it to 38-19 at the half before going ahead 66-33 at three-quarter time to run out winners on the night.
Besides Pranger's 25 on the night, Myriah Noodel-Hayward added 13 and Quierra Love and Jaylen Townsend each had nine for the Tigers; Collinsville was led by Faith Liljegen's 10 points, followed by Kristyn Mitchell's seven and five each from Emily Ford and Riley Doyle.
The Tigers host Alton in a SWC Mega Night event Friday evening, with the girls opening a doubleheader at 6 p.m., followed by the boys at 7:30 p.m.; prior to that, the two JV teams will meet; Friday's twin bill is followed by a 5:30 p.m. clash at St. Joseph's with the Angels in St. Louis County and a Jan. 23 SWC game at Belleville East.
