Josie Christopher’s 24 Points Propel O’Fallon Panthers Victory

EDWARDSVILLE – O’Fallon’s talented senior guard, Josie Chirstopher, led the way with 24 points, including 18 in the first half, and 10 straight in the first quarter, as she helped the Panthers to a hard-fought 53-42 win over Edwardsville in a Southwestern Conference girls basketball game Thursday night, Feb. 5, 2026, at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

The Tigers played hard and competed well throughout the game, but in the end, Christopher’s performance was hard to overcome. But it was a battle all the way.

Christopher had been the main leader for the Panthers all season, and Thursday night’s performance was a very good example of why.

“She’s the real deal,” said O’Fallon coach Nick Knollhoff. “She’s our leader for a reason, a senior. She has the green light at any point to take a shot in our offense, and you saw tonight in the first quarter, shooting about five feet behind the three-point line, and making them to start us off right. How she goes, we go, and all the other girls play off of her from there.”

Other players on O’Fallon had good games, as well, such as Quinn Zerjal and Nakia McCottrel, and the rest of the team played well.

“We’ve got some great girls that go around her,” Knollhoff said. “We defend really well, we got it up, I think twice, to 20, and then, got it to 17. I’m a little disappointed we kind of let them back into the game late there, but those are always things we can fix moving forward into the playoffs.”

The Panthers, who were awarded the third seed in the regional, will be ready to go when the playoffs start in two weeks.

“The seeds came out today,” Knollhoff said, “the locations and who you’re playing has not, but it’s Alton, (Belleville) East, us as the three seed, Quincy the four seed, and Edwardsville got the five seed. So, you know, those top five teams are all very good and anything can happen, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.

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