Sydney Harris is having breakout freshman season for Tigers

O’FALLON – Freshman Sydney Harris is having a breakout season for the Edwardsville girls’ basketball team, and had another good night, scoring 12 points as the Tigers defeated O’Fallon 43-34 Friday night at the Panther Dome.

“It was a good team win overall,” Harris said in an interview following the game. “We started off hitting shots early, everyone was contributing to the offensive end, we all executed our defense how coach (Lori) Blade was talking about, and that’s what got us going, got us the momentum, really, to pull off the team win.”

The Panthers rallied in the second half to close the gap to within four, but the Tigers held their poise and were able to hold on for the win.

“Yeah, O’Fallon, they were getting open, good shots in the first half, they just weren’t hitting,” Harris said, “and at halftime, like coach Blade said, when you have a good offensive team like O’Fallon does, they’re going to eventually fall. That’s what happened in the second half, but we still had to hold ground and pull out with the win like we did.”

Harris put in a lot of work during the summer off-season, and it’s paid off tremendously for her.

“I think I’m doing well,” Harris said. “I put in a lot of work over the summer, preparing for this, knowing that a lot of seniors, their main scorers from last year, left, knowing that I had a lot of expectations coming up to varsity basketball as a freshman, and I just was working on my game.”

Edwardsville has a Southwestern Conference rematch coming up Tuesday against Collinsville at Vergil Fletcher Gym, and Harris is looking forward to the matchup against the Kahoks.

“We played them earlier in the season, and we pulled out with the win, and that was when we were still developing, offense and defense, as a team,” Harris said, “and we’ve come a long way, so I think we should be able to pull with a win from there if we execute everything that coach Blade and coach (Caty) Ponce tel us to do.”

And as far as the remainder of the season, Harris and the team are looking to keep getting better each day as things move along.

“Yeah, we just have to keep moving forward, and even if we lose, we have to keep moving forward,” Harris said, “and keep getting better from each game.”

More like this:

Stillwater Senior Living Male Athlete Of Month: Tyler Moore Helps Spark Granite City Basketball Turnaround

Yesterday

Edwardsville Sweeps Southwestern Conference Boys Tennis Title

May 18, 2026

The Eardley Agency, LLC, Female Athlete of the Month For Redbirds: Lydia Schrumpf Positioned As Alton’s Top Singles Player For 2026

6 days ago

O'Fallon Girls Soccer Season Ends After Narrow Loss to Edwardsville

May 27, 2026

O'Fallon Wins Regional Boys Volleyball Final At Edwardsville 25-17, 25-19

May 29, 2026