EDWARDSVILLE - Senior point guard Que Love was the leading scorer for Edwardsville in their first game of 2020 on Tuesday night as the Tigers defeated East St. Louis 55-40 in a Southwestern Conference game at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
It was the first game for the Tigers since losing to Incarnate Word on Dec. 28 in the championship game of the Visitation Christmas Tournament in suburban St. Louis, and having been idle since then, Love and the Tigers were ready to get back at it on Tuesday night.
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"It's been about a week-and-a-half, so we were ready to play somebody other than ourselves," Love said during a postgame interview. "So, it's great to play today."
The loss to the Red Knights in the Visitation final was Edwardsville's first of the season, and Love felt that the team learned much from it.
"You know, we never want to feel that feeling again," Love said. "It was a terrible feeling, and so, we're just more motivated to go out and get it."
Edwardsville used a very strong defense, holding the Flyers to 13 points in the first half in helping them go on to the win.
"We've just been working on defense a lot in practice," Love said with a smile, "and working on offense, as well. We just executed really good today."
It's a big week coming back for the Tigers, with perhaps their biggest game of the season so far on Friday against O'Fallon, then playing against a good Parkway North team, who defeated Incarnate Word on Tuesday night 61-43, in a shootout at St. Joseph's Academy on Saturday afternoon. Game lie ahead against Collinsville, Alton and St. Joe's the week after, but Love and the Tigers are taking it one game at a time.
"Huge week," Love said. "But, you know, it's just preparing us for the future, and if we get ahead in the playoffs, so we're just going to keep working."
The game against Parkway North is important, of course, but according to Love, the focus first is on O'Fallon.
"We're not really focused on that," Love said. "We just like to compete, play against the best teams, do what we do best, and see what happens."
The win over the Flyers was a great way to get the new year started, and against a good East Side team has given many an opponent problems this season.
"East St. Louis is a pretty good team," Love said, "so I'm just glad that we could pull through to win."
And up next will be the Panthers in the two teams' first meeting since their IHSA Class 4A sectional semifinal thriller at Belleville West last Feb. 19, a 48-46 Tiger win on a last-second three by Sydney Harris. Love is looking forward to the challenge and what may very well be the biggest game of the season to date for Edwardsville.
"O'Fallon's a really good team, they have great players," Love said, "so we're just looking forward to playing them and competing."
And as far as the second half of the season goes, Love and her teammates are looking forward to what lies ahead, but is also taking things one at a time.
"Well, obviously, everyone's goal is always to get to state, win the whole thing," Love said. "We'll just going to take it a game at a time, keep executing the way we are and see where it takes us."
