Tigers pull away from East St. Louis girls 66-52 for 24th straight win

Feb 3, 2017 8:00 AM

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Makenzie Silvey handles ball for Tigers against East St. Louis. EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville had a job to do Thursday night, and they got it done.

The Tigers remained undefeated on the season with a 65-52 Southwestern Conference win over East St. Louis at Lucco-Jackson Gym, a win that was led by Kate Martin's 21 points.

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EHS went to 24-0 on the year and 12-0 in the SWC with two league games to go; the Flyers dropped to 9-9 overall, 6-6 in the league.

"They played hard,” said EHS coach Lori Blade. “We didn't shoot it very well and we didn't settle in very well tonight; it seemed like it was chaotic a majority of the time and we have to get it under control a little bit better. That's not like us, but we made the adjustments we needed to make at halftime and we did a much better job the second half.

“I know we didn't pull away, but they hit a lot of shots and got to the free-throw line. It was a good effort for us; it was good for us that we had to do some things there in the end to run some time off, and they hit some free throws, but overall, it was king of ugly the first half.”

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The Flyers were getting some second-chance opportunities when they crashed the boards, Blade felt. “They hurt us down there on the boards,” Blade said. “They actually outrebounded us, so we knew coming in; we got into position, but we didn't box out; they're going to out-jump you. They are very athletic and they're are going to go over the top of us.”

Edwardsville's bench played a key role in the win; Blade realizes it's going to take some contributions off the bench for postseason success. “I told the kids that we're going to be as good as our weakest line,” Blade said. “Those kids have come off the bench and done a great job in many, many games; tonight, they just didn't make the adjustments on the fly that they normally make.

“It's some things that the good part is it's fixable; but we have to have the right mentality to come in and compete a little bit better than we did tonight.”

Makenzie Silvey had 15 points for EHS in the win, which enabled her to move into second place on the program’s all-time scoring list; she passed Kim Dawson and trails only Emmonie Henderson on the list. Rachel Pranger scored 13 points and hauled in nine rebounds with Criste'on Waters and Myriah Noodel-Hayward scoring eight points each. Darriel Hicks led East Side with 15 points, with Kaysie Newson and Mya Glanton contributing nine points each and Nia McKaskill eight points.

The Tigers wrap up their regular season with a pair of league games, Tuesday at O'Fallon and Feb. 9 at home against Alton; they will learn their first opponent for the IHSA Class 4A regional Friday when the pairings and schedules are released; Springfield and Collinsville will be hosting regionals in the Tigers' sub-sectional draw, where they are the No. 1 seed.