EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville girls basketball forward Syd Harris closed out her regular-season career in style in a Southwestern Conference game against Belleville West, scoring 29 points to help the Tigers take a 65-34 win over the Maroons at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
Harris became the all-time leading scorer for the girls' program Jan. 29, with 28 points to break Emmonnie Henderson's record of 1,806 points in a win over St. Louis Vashon 58-38. Since then, she's increased her total to 1,911 points as the Tigers concluded their regular season 26-4.
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"Awesome," Harris said when asked how she felt in a postgame interview. "As I said, it was one of my main goals coming in as a freshman and I was just happy I was able to still do it, considering all the obstacles we had to go through in the last four years."
Harris broke the record at Vashon's Floyd Irons Court, a court at a school where so much history was made over the years with the Wolverines' programs, both boys and girls, but the important thing for her was that her teammates also played well and the Tigers came away with an important win.
"On top of that, other people played well, we ended up winning by a good amount and we played a great team game," Harris said about the night she broke the individual scoring record. "So it was just more than me breaking that record."
Since then, the Tigers have played exceptionally well, playing their style of basketball, and Harris is very happy with how the regular season went and is confident of a long postseason run.
"Really good," Harris said. "I think we should make a deep run into the postseason if we keep playing how we've been playing together and working hard, staying hungry and not let off the gas, just keep going."
Harris has some favorite memories of her time with the Tigers, one of which came in her freshman year, when Harris hit a baseline jumper right before the buzzer to defeat O'Fallon 48-46 in the IHSA Class 4A sectional semifinal at Belleville West.
"It's definitely up there," Harris said. "For personal favorites, that was definitely a good one. And then, other ones like scoring my 1,000th point, just the little things like that. But yeah, it was awesome."
Just as important to Harris is the friendships she's made with her teammates over the years, with her fellow seniors Elle Evans, Emma Garner, Macy Silvey and Kate Conner, along with the rest of her teammates.
"The friendships," Harris said. "I've been playing with the seniors since sixth grade. There are people that I'll always remember after this, the coaching staff. all the coaches I've been through throughout all my four years. I mean, it's the little things."
Tigers head coach Caty Happe praised Harris' leadership and her growth as a player in all four years.
"Syd, early on, played as a freshman." Happe said, "obviously consistently got better and put up good numbers. Just a great leader."
The Tigers have a key regional championship matchup Friday night at home against the revitalized Redbirds is possible.
