GRANITE CITY – Sophomore forward Sydney Harris led the way with 17 points, while senior point guard Que Love added 12 as Edwardsville scored the opening 19 points in the Tigers’ 65-13 win over Granite City in the girls’ basketball season opener Tuesday night at Granite City’s Memorial Gym.
The Tigers jumped out to the 19-0 lead, scoring six points in the first 44 seconds, using a pressure defense to force quick turnovers, shot the ball very well, and played very well overall in getting their first win of the season.
“We shot it really well to start the game,” said Edwardsville coach Lori Blade, “and that gave us separation right away.”
All nine players in the Edwardsville rotation scored in the first half, and played hard the entire 32 minutes.
“It is,” Blade said. “But they play hard, and that’s what I expect them to do; we were on the ground for loose balls, and very unselfish tonight, and for the most part, we took pretty good shots for us.”
The Tigers will have many players who will play hard and compete well, which bodes well for Edwardsville this coming season.
“We’re going to have some kids on the floor that play hard and compete,” Blade said, “and share the ball. They’re a very unselfish group that works hard. The sophomores are starting to get thing a little bit better as far as what we’re trying to do, so that’s good. You can see the light coming on with them, and they’re a lot more comfortable than what they were last year. But they really did some good things. We stayed out of foul trouble, and Katelynne (Roberts) was a force inside, as far as defensively, but really proud of what we did tonight.”
It only took 46 seconds for the Tigers to jump out to a quick 6-0 lead, using a pressure defense to create turnovers, which led a pair of baskets from Love and another by Harris, forcing the Warriors to call time out to regroup. After the time out, Harris hit a three ball on the side, and then scored two of the Tigers’ next four baskets, with Elle Evans and Roberts also scoring to give Edwardsville a 17-0 lead. Macy Silvey then scored to make it 19-0 before Kaylyn Wiley hit a three on top of the key with 1:25 left in the first for Granite’s first points. Amanda Mills scored, and Silvey hit a three before the end of the period to make it 24-3 for Edwardsville after one.
The Tigers outscored the Warriors 20-2 in the second quarter, with Edwardsville scoring 18 consecutive points after a pair of free throws from Love, and an inside basket from Wiley made the score 26-5 in the opening seconds of the period. Harris got things started with a long three, then Roberts scored, Love hit a three on the side, a basket from Ariana Bennett and a free throw from Mills extended the lead to 37-5. Baskets from Jacquelin Anderson and Bennett along with a three from Mills before the buzzer gave the Tigers a 44-5 lead at halftime.
Azaria Moore hit a three up top for the Warriors to start the second half, but Edwardsville then scored the next six points before Patty Lahey hit a runner to make the score 50-10. A Bennett basket and a three at the buzzer by Silvey sandwiched around a basket from Claire Sykes made the score 55-12 at the end of the third, forcing a fourth quarter running clock. The Tigers outscored the Warriors 10-1 in the final period, with a pair of free throws and a three coming from Harris, another three by Love and free throws from Mills the scoring in the period as Edwardsville went on to its 65-13 win.
The Tigers open up their season 1-0, and face a pair of good tests at a tournament in O’Fallon on Saturday, going up against Peoria Richwoods at 2 p.m., before facing Ladue at 6 p.m. Blade is looking forward to Saturday, and feels that the next two games will give her team a good challenge.
“Two good games,” Blade said “Richwoods is traditionally very, very good; I know they graduated a lot, but they’ll just replenish from there. And then, Ladue gave us a great game last year, and they didn’t lose very much. So we’ll get tested very quickly, which is good. We need that.”
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
