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BELLEVILLE – Edwardsville's girls basketball team didn't get off to the kind of start Tiger coach Lori Blade would have liked Tuesday night.
“We couldn't have started off any worse than we did,” Blade said. “They were ready to jam it right at us.”
The Tigers, though, quickly recovered from that start that saw Belleville East take an early lead on EHS; once they got into gear, Edwardsville went on to take a 61-35 Southwestern Conference road win over the Lancers to go to 20-0 on the year and 9-0 in the SWC; East fell to 13-8 overall, 8-3 in the league.
“We got knocked back on our heels,” Blade said, “but we responded really well and got settled in. We couldn't get a decent shot there; we settled for the jumpers and they were getting to the free-throw line, and that's not a good combo.
“The kids settled in and did a nice job the rest of the way.”
Edwardsville got what Blade called “huge minutes” from juniors Morgan Hulme and Megan Silvey off the bench to spell some of the regulars. “(Hulme) and Silvey both had some really good minutes tonight,” Blade said, “so that was good to see; we needed that because they can have a tendency to get into foul trouble the way they attack the basket.
“Between Rachel (Pranger) and Morgan, I thought they did a really good job on B'Aunce (Carter); Kate did a great job on (Kaylah) Rainey again; we had some kids step up – our depth got challenged a little bit tonight and they responded really well.”
Seeing her depth get challenged as they did Tuesday was something Blade, with the IHSA Class 4A playoffs on the horizon, was happy to see. “We have to (see the Tigers' depth be challenged),” Blade said. “I know Silvey scored points, but the best part of what she did tonight was her defense; she toughened up a little bit on defense, which was good to see; Morgan always is.
“Morgan's a great helper, she's a great passer and just does what's she's capable of doing to help us out.”
Once the Tigers got untracked – they held a 14-11 lead at quarter time – things went their way, expanding on the lead in the second period to get to halftime ahead 30-14, highlighted by a three-point Silvey score at the siren. It was all Edwardsville the rest of the way, the Tigers leading 51-20 at three-quarter time before running out winners on the night.
Myriah Noodel-Hayward led the Tigers with 14 points, with Pranger adding 12 and Martin 11 on the night; Silvey contributed eight and Hulme five. Carter led the Lancers with 13 points, with Bryce Dowell adding seven and Jailyn McClenny and Dowell scoring six each.
Edwardsville's next two games are at Lucco-Jackson Gym, 7:30 p.m. Thursday against Belleville West and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 30 against Granite City.
