Griffins Roll Past Granite City In Lady Hawk Quarterfinals

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CARROLLTON – The Father McGivney Catholic High School girls basketball avenged a loss on Wednesday.

A 57-48 loss at Granite City back on December 13 was just the second of the season, dropping the Griffins to 7-2.

The two teams met again on Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the 51^st Annual Lady Hawk Invitational in Carrollton and the Griffins led wire to wire in a 37-20 win.

McGivney (20-5) moves into the semifinals of the tournament for the first time since 2023 when it won the whole thing.

It will be a quick turnaround, taking on the top-seeded Liberty Eagles (20-4) in the semifinals on Thursday, January 29 at 6 p.m.

“This was a big game for us, but we want to accomplish more this tournament,” Father McGivney head coach Jeff Oller said after the Granite City win. “It’s a good tournament, and it’s a good step in the direction we want to go.”

McGivney never really found itself in much trouble on Wednesday against the fourth-seeded Warriors.

The Griffins scored the game’s first five points thanks to a basket and three-pointer from Alexa Jones who would go on to be the game’s leading scorer with 16 points.

The Warriors closed the gap but still trailed 7-5 after the first quarter.

McGivney opened the second quarter on a nine-point run because of a basket from Jones, two straight threes from Layla Tobin, and a free throw from Elle Willenborg to increase the lead to 20-17. Tobin finished the night with nine points on three threes.

The Griffins led 22-9 at halftime and outscored Granite City 15-11 in the second half for the win.

A much more low-scoring game since their earlier meeting.

“I think we just played much better defense,” Oller said. “We were a little more in control offensively. We just got back to what we’re trying to do. Proud of the girls’ efforts and execution tonight for sure.”

The Warriors were led in scoring by Tyhlee Simms with seven points. Jailyn Woods and Taliyah Sykes each scored four. They fall to 16-6 on the season.

“They’re a tough team, they’re well coached. Ron [Twitchell’s] doing a great job with them,” Oller said of Granite City. “They’ve got some shooters, they’ve got some girls inside, they’re athletic. We knew it would be a tough challenge, but the girls did a great job.”

The result secured McGivney’s seventh straight 20-win season, excluding the shortened COVID-19 Spring 2021 season. It has now won nine of its last 10 games as well.

“You want to get to the end of the year and hope that you’re playing your best ball, and I think we’re on the right track with that,” Oller said. “We’ll just keep trying to get better.”

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