NORMAL - All good things must come to an end.
The Tigers came as close as they could but after a tough battle with the Geneva Vikings, the Edwardsville High School girls' basketball team fell 41-40 Saturday evening in the IHSA Class 4A State Championship at Redbird Arena in Normal.
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This defeat marks the Tigers' only loss for the 2016-17 season. It also signals the end of the high school basketball careers for three outstanding seniors, Makenzie Silvey, Criste'on Waters and Jasmine Bishop.
"They're upset, but they need to put in perspective what we did as a team and how we brought the community together," Edwardsville head coach Lori Blade said. "We had a great out pour of support tonight.”
The Tigers’ Rachel Pranger made a key basket with 23 seconds to go, a layup, that put Edwardsville ahead 40-39. Geneva shot with a handful of seconds to go to attempt to win the game, but the field goal attempt failed and the Vikings’ Stephanie Hart collected the rebound and put the ball back in the basket. Edwardsville called time, with only 2 seconds left, and worked on a play, but Geneva applied strong defense and intercepted a pass to end the contest.
Geneva led 36-31 late in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers kept chipping away at the lead until the last two points of the contest.
Silvey led the Tigers with 17 points for the night while Pranger scored 11 points and also snared 11 rebounds. Quierra Love stepped up to earn six for the night and Kate Martin scored four. Myriah Noodel-Haywood landed one two-point basket.
Geneva’s Grace Loberg paced her team with 17 points; Hart collected 11 points, but none were more important than her final two points of the game.
Geneva broke out to a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, but then Edwardsville rebounded in the second period to knot the game at 23-all at the half.
Geneva outscored the Tigers in the third quarter 9-6, a key to the win. In the fourth, Edwardsville came back, outscoring Geneva 11-9, but it wasn’t enough to pull off a win.
Edwardsville finished the season 32-1, while Geneva finishes 29-4 and collects its first girls state basketball championship.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
