GRANITE CITY – Jace Wilkinson, a senior shooting guard for the Collinsville High basketball team, has brought much senior experience and leadership to the tradition-rich Kahoks, who are currently 4-4 following a come-from-behind 44-36 win at Granite City on Dec. 16, 2025.
Wilkinson led the team with 20 points in the win over the Warriors, including three big free throws in the dying minutes. For the season, Wilkinson leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.3 points-per-game, and also averages 2.4 rebounds-per-game. He’s also been credited with three assists and six steals thus far in the season.
In a postgame interview that followed the win against Granite, Wilkinson agreed that the 20-point performance was good, but at the same time, recognized that Collinsville had to start getting ready for an important Southwestern Conference visit from Edwardsville that Friday.
“Yeah, it feels great,” Wilkinson said. “But at the same time, we’ve got to get ready for a tough game on Friday.”
The game against the Tigers promises to be a typical, highly competitive, and rough-and-tumble SWC affair, which is so typical of a SWC game.
“The Southwestern Conference is tough right now,” Wilkinson said. “It’s just filled with a bunch of athletes that can play. So, we’ve just got to play harder than everybody else.”
The win over the Warriors was a good way to prepare for Edwardsville, Wilkinson agreed, and he knows his team will be ready to go.
“In the past, Granite City hasn’t been that good,” Wilkinson said, “but this year, they’ve got a couple of guys who are pretty good, and we’ve been trying to get our teamwork together, and tonight was just a showcase of how we can play as a team, how we can play if we’re playing are hardest that we can.”
And it can’t come at a better time, with the Kahoks’ 41st annual Prairie Farms Holiday Classic coming up Dec. 27-29. It’s an event Wilkinson and the Kahoks are looking forward to.
“The Holiday tournament’s going to be big,” Wilkinson said. “The first game, we’ve got (Belleville) Althoff (Catholic), but it’s going to be a pretty tough matchup. I know they have a few guys, not really basketball players, but just athletes all the way around. So, they’re going to be physical, athletic, and we’re just going to have to take what we did today, and just do it again in the tournament.”
And after New Year’s comes the second half of the season, and the heart of the conference race. Wilkinson is looking ahead to the second half, and the postseason drive in February and March as well.
“We’re trying to get to our best basketball when the playoffs come around,” Wilkinson said, “and make a deep playoff run. So, I’m pretty excited.”
