Wilke’s career game powers Highland to consolation championship over East St. Louis
When Grace Wilke is on with her shot, the Highland Lady Bulldogs basketball team is virtually unbeatable.
Against East St. Louis, the Lady Bulldogs’ senior shooting guard had the game of her life Thursday afternoon, Dec. 29, exploding for a career-high 31 points, including seven triples.
The Lady Bulldogs withstood a brief fourth-quarter run by East St. Louis and ultimately rolled to a 56-42 win in the Mascoutah Invitational Tournament consolation championship.
Highland (16-4) — bounced into the consolation bracket by a first-round loss to Breese Central on Tuesday, Dec. 27 — won three straight games between Wednesday, Dec. 28, and Thursday, Dec. 29, for a 3-1 tourney ledger.
“After the first game, Central kind of came in and punched us in the mouth. And it just shows the resiliency to come back and win three games — beating Riverview Gardens, a really good Nashville team, and then East St. Louis,” HHS coach Clint Hamilton said. “It shows resiliency, and that’s good to go forward with.”
Highland ensured Wilke had the ball in her hands early and often as she knocked down three straight treys to give the Lady Bulldogs a 14-7 cushion after one quarter.
Wilke was on fire in the first half as she pumped in 18 points to drive the HHS offense.
“Coach was giving us a talk (before the game) that you can’t take anything for granted and you have to play 100% the whole time and I felt like that (tonight) was my time to show them,” Wilke said. “I was surprised (by the first three), but once I got going, I had a lot of momentum. It felt really good.”
Wilke’s career-best game was a pleasant sight for Hamilton.
“She got us going offensively and made some shots early — and we needed all of them — and she had a really great game,” Hamilton said.
East St. Louis (8-11) pulled within 18-15 on a Shakara McCline lay-in with 5:14 left in the first half.
After a quick timeout, Highland answered with a 10-5 run kickstarted by a Wilke trey and a Larissa Taylor bucket as HHS carried a 28-18 lead into the halftime break.
Highland extended the margin to 45-28 on a Taylor lay-in with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Taylor, the Lady Bulldogs’ junior post, finished the day with a solid outing in the paint, scoring 14 points.
The Flyers made one final charge in the fourth quarter as a 6-0 run started by an Alicia Cross backdoor basket pulled East St. Louis within 45-38 with 6:30 remaining.
But Highland responded with an 11-4 surge down the stretch to settle the issue.
“We had a couple of turnovers (then), and I thought that brought down our momentum, but we worked on teamwork. I feel like we just had each other’s back, then we went on a run again,” Wilke said.
McCline led East St. Louis with 17 points.
