Kahok Girls Basketball Team Battles SWC Heavyweights

By Mark Jurgena

O’Fallon 68 Collinsville 38

O‘Fallon’s press kicked into gear and forced eight turnovers in the 2nd quarter to pull away from Collinsville at Fletcher Gym last Saturday.

“In the second quarter we started off doing a decent job with the full court pressure but we just weren’t scoring on the backside when we did beat them,” said coach Colin Moore. ”It turned into a little bit of a track meet and their speed and toughness in transition made it tough to keep up. By not scoring and turning the ball over we just weren’t able to set up our defense.”

The Panthers out scored CHS 26-9 in the period to take a 42-20 lead into the break.

O’Fallon went 11-for-14 from the field in the stanza including a 12-0 start.

Collinsville’s Ella Guerrero hit two threes in the last :35 to cut into O’Fallon’s lead.

In the third quarter, the Kahoks were outscored 22-15, but Collinsville was able to bury three triples. Astacia Bush, who sat a big portion of the opening half due to foul trouble, responded with two threes and another field goal in the 3rd quarter.

Guerrero also hit another late three.

“On a positive note, we got four three-pointers from freshman Ella Guerrero,” said Moore. “As a team, we are starting to finish better. Some of the girls are starting to adapt to their role on the team and we are working better as a team.”

In the opening period, a late run culminated by a Jenna Scheller bucket cut the Panther lead to five points. Orianna Givens began the play driving the length of the floor and hit Scheller with a bounce pass around the O’Fallon defender.

Guerrero led the Kahoks with 12 points while Scheller added seven.

Katie Bardwell had five rebounds and Bush pulled down four.

East St. Louis 53 Collinsville 41

Falling behind early doesn’t doom your fate but coming back from it will drain your energy.

Such was the case for Collinsville on February 11th at East St. Louis.

CHS fell behind 19-2 in the opening quarter but whittled the margin to only six midway through the 4th quarter. However, the Kahoks would come no closer and fall 53-41.

“I am very happy that we have battled back in games and are showing the beginnings of increasing our mental toughness,” commented coach Colin Moore.

Trailing by 15 heading to the fourth, CHS immediately went on a 6-0 run scoring all their points off turnovers.

Jordan Gary and Guerrero both came up with steals and layups to start the quarter as CHS came out with the full court press.

Scheller hit a field goal to cut the lead to nine.

After a couple of Flyer buckets, CHS went on an 8-0 run.

Scheller began it with a field goal and Megan Janson hit a three. Riley Doyle had a put back, then Bardwell made the back end of two free throws to cut it to six.

The Flyers finished the game on a 10-4 run.

East St. Louis had gotten off to a flying start as they went 8-for-11 to begin the game and led by 12 at the end of the quarter.

Collinsville righted the ship a bit and played even with the Flyers in the 2nd period as both teams scored 11 points.

Gary started the 2nd quarter with a free throw and a layup to draw CHS closer but an East St. Louis run pushed the lead to 17 points late in the stanza.

But the Kahoks finished the half strong.

A field goal by Scheller and a three from Doyle got things started. Janson contributed a free throw and Bardwell got the halftime margin to 30-12.

Scheller led the Kahoks with 16 points while Doyle added eight.

CHS upped the defense as the game wore on and eventually won the turnover battle forcing 16 miscues by the Flyers while committing 15 themselves.

CHS lost the rebounding battle 37-32. Scheller had nine boards and Gary with seven.

“We are just looking to up the aggression and attack loose balls,” Moore said. “We got to rebound better and take care of the ball. I would also say we are getting good shots and above average offense we just have to finish.”        

Belleville West 66 Collinsville 35

The Kahoks fell behind 19-4 after one quarter of play at West on February 9th and were unable to recover in the SWC contest.

They were led in scoring by Scheller’s 16 points while Gary and Guerrero each added five tallies for Collinsville.

Scheller had four rebounds as did Janson.