EDWARDSVILLE – Alandyn Simmons led Edwardsville with 15 points, while Lainey McFarlin added 14 points, including a pair of big threes late, but Belleville East held off a fourth-quarter Edwardsville rally, blocking a three-point shot in the final seconds to hold on to a 49-47 win for the Lancers in a Southwestern Conference girls basketball game played Thursday night at Lucco-Jackson Gym.
The Lancers led most of the way, ahead at halftime 31-19, and 38-33 after the third quarter, but Edwardsville came back to within 45-44 in the final two minutes, and had a chance to either tie or win in the final seconds, but the East defense swatted away a shot, and neither team could recover the ball as the buzzer sounded to end the game.
“Obviously, losing doesn’t feel good,” said Tigers head coach Bryan Young, “but I’m proud of the way the girls fought back, and that’s a tough Belleville East team. You could tell they just really wanted it tonight, and give their coaches and kids credit. They fought hard the whole game.”
The win was a signature win for the Lancers, and Young very much agreed with the sentiment.
“Obviously, like I said, they probably wanted to come down here, playing in Edwardsville,” Young said, “it meant something to them, and the girls showed it. I give her (Lancers Coach Amanda Kemezys) a lot of credit, and give her kids a lot of credit for keeping their poise. And they’re young. So, that’s a credit to them, too. They kept their poise down the stretch, and made the plays that needed to be made.”
“Oh, man, I’m exhausted,” Belleville East head girls basketball coach Amanda Kemezys said with a smile and laugh, “and I didn’t even play. That was an awesome effort from the girls. I’m so, so proud of them. This is the experience that we wanted. We’ve had some big wins, but we want to play against the better competition, and really be able to make a statement win. I think this was a good one.”
The Tigers made some big plays in the stretch run as well, as Simmons, McFarlin, and Mia Semith hit big shots for the Tigers.
“I’m not taking it away from our girls,” Young said, “because I thought our girls fought hard. They fought to come back into the game. Unfortunately, that’s how the ball bounces. Maybe not the better team won, but the team that made the plays at the end, and I give our girls a lot of credit. They fought their way back into the game. It just came maybe a minute too short. Another minute, it could have gone the other way. You never know.”
Young continued and said he told his girls to not hang their heads about the defeat: “Overall, there’s still a postseason ahead of us. We can learn from this, and we can grow from this. Before tonight, we’ve played some good basketball. We’ve got to get back on track, starting tomorrow, and head into the postseason in the right direction.
“February’s coming up, I don’t know what this will do with seeds, but either way, you’ve got to get past the best teams, and all that. I think Belleville East will be the first seed in the regional, so whether we play them in the first game or the last game, we’ve got to get ready to play them. We’ll play whichever is in front of us for the postseason, so like I told the girls, keep focused on the postseason, and practice every day to get better, and we’ll be fine.”
The game started off with the Lancers going ahead 6-4, then going on a 9-1 run to take command, as Ramiyah Young did much of the damage, to give East a 15-7 lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter, Hailey Gray and Young scored early to give the Lancers a 19-7 lead, with the Tigers responding after a time-out, as Simmons scored, and Layne Logan hit a three to bring Edwardsville back to 19-14. After a Lancer time-out, Taylor Smith and Vanessa Stacy helped lead a charge where East outscored the Tigers 12-5 the remainder of the quarter to give East a 31-19 lead at the interval.
In the third quarter, Gray hit a shot in the lane to give the Lancers a 33-19 lead, but back came the Tigers, as Sophie Shapiro hit a free throw, and Simmons hit a three to cut the lead to 33-23. Gray hit back-to-back shots to put East ahead 37-25, with Semith and Simmons helping to pull Edwardsville to within 38-31 at three-quarter time.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Semith scored, and McFarlin hit a critical three to pull Edwardsville to within 38-36. Demaya Bartelheim kept Edwardsville at bay with a basket to make it 40-36, but the Tigers kept coming, and McFarlin sank another three to cut the lead to 46-45 late. Young countered with a three of her own to extend the lead to 49-45, and Simmons scored inside to make it 49-47 with 1:23 to go. The Lancer defense held together in the final minute, and blocked a three-point try before the buzzer, with the loose ball unable to be recovered by either team as East held on to win 49-47.
Gray led the way for the Lancers with 19 points, Young added 14 points, Bettelheim had six points, Smith scored four points, Stacy hit for three points, and Madison Hunter scored two points. Simmons led the Tigers with 15 points, while McFarlin had 14 points, Semith scored eight points, Shapiro had four points, and Kaylee Hauschild scored two points.
The Tigers drop to 13-9, and meet Collinsville at home on Tuesday, play at home against East St. Louis on Thursday and at Granite City next Friday, and are at home against Rochester on Feb. 11, and at Belleville West on Feb. 13, all games also starting at 7:30 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
