Modest Fischer leads confident Kahoks to signature win

Of course Collinsville junior Kaitlyn Fischer understood the gravity of the Lady Kahoks’ 70-68 win over Edwardsville last Thursday — no team from the Southwestern Conference had beaten the Tigers in 89 previous games.

For the Kahoks alone, that six-year span of dominance resulted in 11 losses to the perennial conference champion by an average margin of 36 points.

But Fischer became noticeably flustered when asked what last week’s streak-breaking victory did to buoy the Kahoks’ confidence for the remainder of this season. Her neck and cheeks flushed as she began the search for the right words.

“It’s hard to explain, I don’t know,” she said, rubbing her neck with her eyes cast toward the floor. “It was definitely a goal to beat them. We talked about it even last year and thought we came pretty close.”

What she wanted to say — without sounding overly confident — was that she and the Kahoks never doubted their ability to win the game in the first place. Their quiet brand confidence had been established well before finally meeting up with the Tigers on the court.

Fischer is this week’s Belleville News-Democrat Athlete of the Week.

“I was thinking about it and Edwardsville is really good and everybody knows that,” she said. “I just feel like we’re really good and can compete with the best. As long as we focus on doing the little things and executing things right, we have confidence in what we can do.”

The Kahoks certainly gave no hint that they were intimidated by the Tigers or their recent history against them. Collinsville shot 50 percent from the field and was 11-of-16 from three-point range. Carlee Mahan pitched in 15 points and Lauren Lee added another 12 on four 3-pointers.

It was Fischer, though, who put her money where her mouth would have been in the absence of her modesty. She scored a game-high and personal best 27 points, including the game-winning shot with two seconds left.

“She just kind of decided that we were going to get the job done and she put us on her back and carried us,” said Collinsville coach Lori Billy. “You know, we have other kids who stepped up. Most nights, if you have a kid who scores 17 points, that’s huge. Kaitlyn though ... gosh, she was all business that night.”

Fischer’s game-winner came after Edwardsvillle junior Makenzie Silvey tied the game with a pair of free throws with 9 seconds left. Silvey led Edwardsville with 23 points.

After receiving the inbound pass, Fischer’s focus was to not rush the play.

“We had nine seconds left so I felt like I had plenty of time and didn’t have to rush anything,” Fischer said. “Coach Billy said to take it inside and make something happen. I was just looking to see what was open -- if I had a shot, I’d take it or I’d could kick it out to another guard.”

Fischer weaved her way past a pair of Edwardsville defenders and “put up a little floater that fell.” The Tigers attempted to inbound the ball in get a shot off in the final two seconds, but were unable to do so. Billy threw her arms in the air and the Kahoks bench joined the players on the court for a celebration of a benchmark win.

The last Southwestern Conference team to defeat Edwardsville was Belleville West in 2009.

“It was a big win for our program,” Billy said. “We talked about the little things we can do. We know we have kids who can score and they came through.”

Despite a subsequent loss at East St. Louis Tuesday, Fischer and the improved Kahoks still have other milestones ahead. But Billy said the signature win against Edwardsville, in many ways, is representative of the work her team put in during the off-season.

Fischer, who turns 17 on Christmas Eve, leads Collinsville at 13.5 points per game, shooting 45.6 percent from the field. She’s also taken twice as many free throws as anyone else on the team and has converted on 75 percent of them.

“We have great players everywhere, I think,” she said. “We have been so focused this year and it feels like there is more motivation. We just have to keep that going and keeping working hard. We just have to keep working hard and paying attention to the little things and, if we can do that, I feel like we can compete with anybody.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Modest Fischer leads confident Kahoks to signature win."