Kahok Girls Basketball Has Tough Week Against Pair Of Ranked Team

By Mark Jurgena, Reporter

The Collinsville girls basketball team dropped a pair of games last week to undefeated squads to make their record to 4-2 on the young season.

On December 5th, the game was close through three quarters but the #4 team in Class 4A, Edwardsville, used a 15-5 advantage in the 4th quarter to pull away from the Kahoks 47-31.

“It felt like we had set the tempo that we wanted, especially in the 1st half of that game. We were  back and forth and at half we went down three. Natalie Becker hit a big three that got us within three at half. We came back out and in the 3rd quarter I felt like we executed, got our offense moving a little better than I thought we did even in the 1st half. We got the score 26 all and then from there it was just kind of like the wheels fell off,” said CHS coach Lori Billy.

Edwardsville had a three point advantage after one quarter courtesy of a late 6-0 run. In the 2nd quarter, the Tigers had a six point lead until Natalie Becker hit a three at the buzzer to bring the Kahoks within three.

“We were up, we all felt really good about it. We felt like we were in the game and it wasn’t like we felt like we had to climb a hill to get the win. We felt like we were in the game playing pretty well. That shot gave us a boost and we felt good about it,” Billy said.

Coming out of the half, two quick buckets by Kristyn Mitchell gave CHS a 21-20 lead with 6:56 to play in the 3rd.

The Tigers regained the lead at 25-21 but Mitchell brought CHS back within two.

After a Tiger free throw, Knutson cut the lead to one. Then at the 2:43 mark, Astacia Bush tied the game at 26 all.

After that, EHS took over. They scored the last six points of the 3rd period and the first six of the 4th.

Knutson and Mitchell led CHS with nine points each.

Astacia Bush led in rebounds with eight and Riley Doyle led in assists with four.

The win marked Edwardsville’s 54th straight win in Southwestern Conference play.

Bethalto (Civic Memorial) 63 Collinsville 42

In a game of runs, Bethalto (Civic Memorial), used a 23-1 run over an eight minute span to overtake Collinsville on the way to a 63-42 win on December 2nd.

Later in the week, CM earned the #4 ranking in the first Class 3A state poll of the year.

The Kahoks went on a 12-2 run to go up 16-6 with 2:31 remaining in the 1st quarter.

“It’s something we talked about and we worked on. We said we cannot come out and play a flat 1st half especially in the games in the Southwestern Conference and games like the one against CM. You’ve got to come out and start strong and I felt like in both games this week we did that and it was kind of the reverse of what we had done at the Nashville Tournament,” said Billy.

That fast start was highlighted by defense and transition buckets.

Doyle began the run followed by Mitchell’s three-pointer to make it 9-4.

Knutson snagged a rebound off a missed free throw, got it to Faith Liljegren, who pushed it into the front court and over to Mitchell for the bucket at the 4:29 mark.

Liljegren began another break by hustling back on defense and blocking a layup attempt. She