Lacey, Delahantny Lead With 10 Points Each, Redbirds Break Out In Second Quarter, Eliminate Kahoks 50-18

Top-seeded Alton secured a commanding win over Collinsville, propelled by strong performances from Kaylea Lacey and Claire Delahantny in the regional semifinals.

Feb 17, 2026 1:05 PM

Listen to the story

EDWARDSVILLE - Senior Kaylea Lacey and sophomore Claire Delahantny both led with 10 points each as top-seeded Alton broke away in the second quarter to take a 29-12 lead at halftime, going on to eliminate Collinsville 50-18 in the second semifinal of the IHSA girls basketball Class 4A regionals at Edwardsville's Lucco-Jackson Gym on Monday, Feb. 16, 2026.

Get The Latest News!

Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.

The Redbirds advanced to Friday night's final against the host Tigers, who came back from 49-35 down in the fourth quarter to take a dramatic 50-49 win over Quincy in the first semifinal.

The Kahoks hung tough with Alton in the opening quarter, with the Redbirds leading 9-7, but Alton's trademark pressure defense helped the Redbirds take charge, outscoring Collinsville the rest of the way 41-11 to advance to the final.

In his first year coaching the team, Alton's head coach, Deiondre Riney, is very happy to have the chance to take the Redbirds into the final.

"I'm excited to have this opportunity in my first year of coaching," Riney said, "and to be in a regional final is definitely a great honor."

Riney gave a shout-out to Collinsville for the way the Kahoks hung in throughout the game, and also felt that not having the 35-second shot clock threw off the Redbirds in the opening period.

"We talked about it before," Riney said, "we said the team would hold the ball. It just kind of threw us off. We've been playing with a shot clock the whole time, and now, it's just not operating. This is where things should definitely get weird during the postseason."

The 35-second shot clock comes into play in the IHSA next season, but the Southwestern Conference implemented it a year ahead of time in order for teams to become familiar with it.

The Redbirds did take charge in the second quarter, and were able to dominate the play the rest of the way.

"I think it's tough," Riney said. "Myself and a couple of coaches and I were talking about it, and I think it's tough to do it if you haven't been doing it all season. And when you come in, playing shot clock, having to play disciplined for a full four quarters, I think it will be tough for teams, really, to hold the ball."

Article continues after sponsor message

Connect with Riverbend Readers - advertise with us today!!

Riney is looking ahead to the challenge of playing Edwardsville on their home floor for the regional title and the chance to advance to the Peoria Richwoods sectional.

"Edwardsville at home, they play really well on their home court," Riney said. "They compete, with a big win over Quincy, you just saw the way they scrap, they competed through, their home crowd supports them. So, you definitely want to come in here and get the win. But you have to be prepared from the start of the game."

Riney is confident that the Redbirds will do well again in the postseason run, but has adopted a one day at a time mantra.

"We just try to approach every day 1-0," Riney said. "We'll approach Tuesday, try to go 1-0 in practice, Wednesday, same thing, and then, we'll obviously show up Friday ready to compete."

The Kahoks did everything they could to slow down Alton, but in the end, the Redbirds had all the answers to eliminate Collinsville.

"We came out and just tried to slow the pace down a little bit," said Kahoks' head coach Colin Moore. "Our girls did a good job, but we've got a young bench, and they've got a lot of athletes, and they can just keep running the match over and over. The cream just rose to the top, as they say, but the girls fought hard. You can see how much it means to them. They did the right thing. I'm proud of them. They're good kids, they do the right thing, and they work hard."

Lacey started the game off with a three, with Karley Call scoring twice to give the Kahoks a 4-3 lead. A Karly VanDyke basket extended the Collinsville lead to 6-3, then Morris converted to make the score 8-3 for the Kahoks. Madeleine Ducey then scored twice for Alton to make it 8-7, with a free throw from Morris before the end of the first gave Collinsville a 9-7 lead at quarter time. In the second, the Alton pressure slowly but surely began to pay off for the Redbirds, as Alton went on a 10-0 run behind Ava Harris, Lacey, and Ja'Kayla Steen to make it 17-9, A three-point play by Morgan Harris-Golliday cut the lead to 17-12, but the Redbirds went on a 12-0 to close out the first half, as Harris did much of the damage to give Alton a 29-12 halftime lead.

Steen and Ducey opened up the second half by extending the Alton lead to 34-15, with Delahantny and Justice Haynes continuing to open up the lead to 48-18 after the third quarter, with the fourth quarter running clock rule going into effect. There was just one score in the fourth quarter, a basket by Delahanty, as the Redbirds won going away 50-18.

Lacey and Delahanty had 10 points each to lead the Redbirds, while Aryanna Anthony hit for nine points, Ducey scored seven points, Harris had six points, and both Haynes and Steen had four points each. The Kahoks were led by seven points for Call, four points by VanDyke, three points each for Morris and Harris-Golliday, and a single point by Aubrey Bordoni.

Collinsville ends its season at 7-24, while Alton is now 27-2 and goes up against Edwardsville in the regional final on Friday at 6 p.m. The winner meets the winner of Belleville East and O'Fallon, the finalists at Belleville West, in the sectional semifinal Feb. 24 at a neutral site, with a 6 p.m. tip. The winner goes on to the sectional final Feb 26 at 7 p.m at Richwoods High, the sectional winner advancing to the super-sectional game Mar. 2 at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. The state finals are set for Mar. 5-7 at CEFCU Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal.

Alton's most loyal fan in both girls and boys basketball - Ed Gray. (Photo by Dan Brannan).