This will be the Edwardsville Tigers last appearance in the Scott Credit Union/Highland Girls Tournament.

The defending champion Tigers have not been invited back to the tournament next year.

The Tigers bring an 18-0 record into their first-round game against Nokomis at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“I just want to get good competitve games and see how kids are going to respond in different situations, just like you would any other tournament,’’ Edwardsville coach Lori Blade said. “Our goal is to get to the championship and give ourselves an opportunity to compete to win the tournament. That goes for any tournament, not just the Highland one.’’

The Tigers have been on a roll. Their smallest margin of victory over the last month is 17 points in a 50-33 win over Teutopolis.

They’ve routed East St. Louis 59-31, O’Fallon 71-28, Eurkea 56-25, Collinsville 56-27 and Edwardsville 82-15 in the last week.

“I haven’t seen them play, but justing look at the box scores, they’re getting good inside and outside play, and that makes them the real heavy favorite in the tournament,’’ said Mater Dei coach Dave Kohnen said, whose team enters the tournament with an 18-0 record.

Blade said her team’s defensive play has been crucial to its success.

“That was the part that was really suspect coming in this year, and I think they’ve done a good job during the season and they need to continue doing that,’’ said Blade, whose team has allowed an opponent to score more than 40 points only twice this season. “They need to take a significant amount of pride on defense, especially in the team aspect of it.’’

— Steve Korte