Kahok Girls Finish Regular Season Competing Against the State’s Best
By Mark Jurgena
COLLINSVILLE — It was a tough week of games for the Collinsville girls basketball team as they dropped consecutive contests to two of the top ten teams in Illinois and began the week with a narrow loss to a squad with a Division II recruit that has compiled over 1,600 points in her career.
Surprisingly to some, in those two losses to second-ranked Alton and seventh-ranked and defending Class 4A state champ O’Fallon, the Kahoks lost by a grand total of 30 points.
During the first time around the SWC, Collinsville lost by a combined total of 80 points to those two squads.
“We just came into these last games with a new type of energy,” said senior Ella Guerrero “Especially our shooting has been really good and we’re just hoping to continue that to the Edwardsville game.”
Collinsville played Monday night in their own Class 4A regional against rival Edwardsville however results were unavailable at press time. If the Kahoks won they play Friday night in the title contest against the winner of the Alton/Granite City contest.
Alton loss
Except for the second quarter.
Collinsville outscored the number two ranked team in the state of Illinois in the first and fourth quarters and dropped the third quarter by a single point.
But the Redbirds outscored the Kahoks 30-8 in the second frame to propel themselves to a 65-52 win over Collinsville on Feb. 8 at Fletcher Gym.
“We just talked to them in the locker room,” began CHS coach Colin Moore. “When you lower expectations…I said, ‘no matter where your pressure is coming from, no matter who it’s coming from, if you can learn to handle it and put it aside we can do some things.’
Despite the loss, Moore was optimistic about how his team has played in recent games, especially in light of their competition.
“Unfortunately with the nature of our schedule it starts off and then it gets so end loaded and heavy with these dominating teams they get themselves beat up because we lost all those games we could’ve won but then in a weird way you go back to the games where you know you’re the underdog and you play with that I don’t care attitude and girls relax, they don’t get stressed out and they play hard.”
CHS outscored Alton 8-6 in the opening quarter, limiting the Redbirds (28-2, 12-0) to only 2-for-10 shooting in that time.
The Kahoks got five points from Talesha Gilmore and a three from Ella Guerrero to take the lead.
However, the Redbirds went on a 14-5 run to begin the second quarter on 6-of-7 shooting including a pair of threes then piled up the points from there.
Alton finished on a 16-3 run including the final 11 points to lead 36-16 at the half.
AHS went 12-for-15 from the floor in the quarter making three of their four attempts from beyond the arc.
The Redbirds jumped to a 41-18 lead early in the third before Moore called a 30-second timeout to settle his team.
While Collinsville trailed 51-30 through three quarters but the four 3-pointers they made were just a precursor to the final stanza.
The Kahoks buried four more threes in the last period while Gilmore racked up 10 of her game-high 25 points as well.
“The fact that Talesha can score 25 points against two 6-footers that are both going to play college basketball and then have girls hit all those 3-pointers was fun,” said Moore. “It was a fun game.”
CHS drilled eight 3-pointers in the second half, with Ashley Janini knocking down three. Guerrero and Lily Carlisle hit a pair. Gilmore even got in on the festival with one from the left corner.
“We preach all the time that we have to shoot,” said Moore. “We’ve had a lot of games this year where we’ve probably been on the wrong side and lost some games where we’ve had only two or three girls score. I told them that they’ve got to keep shooting. Nobody’s going to be mad if you take a good shot.”
O’Fallon loss
Taking on a top-ten-ranked defending state champ that beat you 63-27 earlier in the season is a tall task.
While Collinsville was unable to overcome that task completely, a 69-52 loss shows great improvement since the first matchup on Dec. 14.
CHS only trailed the Panthers 20-18 after the first quarter but couldn’t keep up with the Panthers in the second trailing 42-23 at the break.
They outscored O’Fallon by two points in the second half.
In the opening eight minutes, despite a 9-for-10 shooting performance by the Panthers to open the game, CHS put together a late 6-0 run thanks to Carlisle’s second three of the contest, a pair of free throws by Janini and one from Gilmore to close the gap.
But the Panthers kept Collinsville off the board for over five minutes in the second quarter until Talesha Gilmore scored the 1,000th and 1,001st points of her career with 2:46 to play in the half.
She cut the Panther lead to 29-20 when she took a deep paint touch off a pass from Katie Bardwell. Gilmore turned to the baseline from the right side and hit the layup.
Moore took a time out and the team mobbed Gilmore near their bench in celebration.
But the Panthers went on an 11-3 run to end the half with Guerrero hitting a three to help break up the run.
On Feb 3, Guerrero hit a three to break the school record for 3-pointers in a career against Father McGivney. Against O’Fallon she set a new single-season record for threes.
Collinsville finished the game going 6-for-11 from the floor in the final eight minutes to cut into the Panther advantage.
For the game, Gilmore dropped 23 points with seven rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks while Guerrero and Janini had nine points and four assists each.
Janini had four steals.
Jerseyville loss
Jersey went 9-for-11 from the free throw line in the final quarter to stave off Collinsville by a 51-45 count on Feb. 5 at Havens Gym in Jersey County.
The Panthers held a ten-point lead both at the half and through three quarters.
Gilmore exploded for 14 points of her 21 points in the fourth quarter while grabbing nine rebounds and three blocks during the contest. She also drilled a pair of threes.
Guerrero had 16 points including four threes.
