Stillwater Senior Living Female Athlete Of Month: Taliyah Sykes Provides Senior Leadership To Granite City Girls Basketball Team

EDWARDSVILLE - Taliyah Sykes is a senior guard for the girls basketball team at Granite City High School who played an important role in a historic season for the Warriors, as the team reached the 20-win circle for only the fourth time in the program's history, and the first time in 15 years.

Sykes averaged 8.4 points and 1.8 rebounds-per-game for Granite in helping the team go 20-9 in the regular season, which ended with a 56-33 loss to Edwardsville Feb. 12 at Lucco-Jackson Gym.

In her postgame interview, Sykes expressed her happiness with the season and its accomplishments for the Warriors.

"We've worked a lot harder this year," Sykes said, "and we have a lot more chemistry with the team. So I think that's helping us get confidence on the court."

Taliyah is a Stillwater Senior Living Female Athlete of the Month for the Warriors.

The first 20-win season since 2010-11 was a great accomplishment, and Sykes gave much credit to head coach Ron Twitcell.

"Our coach has really been helping us work better together as a team," Sykes said. "Usually, in the past years, it's been one player as the star. But he works to make all five players the stars."

Although the Tigers led most of the way and were the better team on the night, Sykes is still very happy about how things turned out for her club this season.

"It's a good season to be my last season," she said.

The Warriors started their postseason campaign with a play-in game against Belleville West, with the winner going to face the number two seed, Belleville East, in the West regional semifinals. Sykes feels confident in the Warriors winning the postseason opener for the first time in many years in the game against the Maroons.

In looking back at the season, the 20 wins will be the biggest accomplishment for the team.

"That we were the fourth team in our program's history to get 20 wins in a season," Sykes said.

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