Hot-shooting Kahoks stun Tigers, ending huge conference winning streak for Edwardsville
The streak is over.
Collinsville junior Kaitlyn Fischer went the length of the floor and scored on a layup with less than two seconds remaining on Thursday as the Kahoks ended Edwardsville’s 89-game Southwestern Conference winning streak with a stunning 70-68 win at Collinsville High School.
Fischer’s basket, her 24th and 25th points of the night, came after Edwardsvillle junior Makenzie Silvey had tied the game with 9.3 seconds remaining with a pair of free throws. Silvey led Edwardsville with 23 points.
But after taking the inbounds pass, Fischer weaved her way through a pair of Tigers defenders near midcourt and drove to the basket where she gently laid the ball in with under two seconds left.
Edwardsville attempted to get the ball inbounds, but when time expired, Collinsville coach Lori Billy threw her arms up in triumph while the Kahoks players stormed the court in celebration.
“I just did what coach (Billy) told me to do which was take the ball to the basket,” Fischer said. “After I made the shot I looked up at the clock and it had one second on it. I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Nobody gave us a shot tonight. But we know what we can do. We’re a great shooting team and we proved it again tonight.”
The win in the SWC opener for both teams moves Collinsville to 4-1 for the season while Edwardsville, which played much of the game without four-plagued sophomore Rachel Pranger, also fell to 4-1.
The loss is the first in league play for the Tigers since Belleville West defeated them in January 2009. Edwardsville had gone undefeated in the SWC for the last six straight years.
But thanks in a large part to Fischer’s 25 points and four 3-point baskets each from Carlee Mahan and Lauren Lee, there won’t be a seventh straight undefeated conference season.
KEY SEQUENCE
Edwardsville, which eventually lost Pranger, Katie Martin and Criste’on Waters, who all fouled out in the fourth quarter, led by 10 points late in the second quarter and was on the verge of taking control of the game. But a basket and two free throws by Fischer and a 3-point hoop by Mahan cut the Tigers’ lead to 33-26 at halftime.
Fischer then scored on basket another 3-point shot and Mahan hit a 3-point shot as Collinsville drew close. Two free throws by Cassidy Smith tied the game at 37 with 4:04 left in the third quarter. Neither team would lead by more than five points for the rest of the game as the Tigers and Kahoks staged an old fashioned early season shootout.
“Amazing, simply amazing,” an ecstatic Billy said. “Have I seen us shoot the ball any better then what we did tonight? Actually yes. We put up 80 points at the Nashville Tournament. Then the next game against Massac Country, we couldn’t throw it in the ocean.
“The last shot we knew what we wanted to get and we got it. It was just an amzaing effort by the girls. There’s that word again — amazing. To beat Edwardsville and coach (Lori Blade) with all the respect I have for their program and what they have done by winning 89 straight games is just amazing.”
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Silvey was pretty amazing herself. The Tigers guard scored 11 of her 23 points in the fourth quarter with three of the Tigers top four offensive weapons on the bench after fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Mahan added 16 for Collinsville while Lee added 12 on four three point field goals.
Blade, showing the class of a champion, said Collinsville deserved to win the game.
“They (Collinsville) were the better team tonight. They outplayed us and deserved to win this one,” Blade said. “Collinsville is known for having great shooters and they showed that tonight. But we’ve got do a better job on the defensive end the court.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Hot-shooting Kahoks stun Tigers, ending huge conference winning streak for Edwardsville."