Edwardsville vs Granite City: 5 key takeaways

In the opening game for both teams Edwardsville traveled to Granite City and came away with a 80-11 victory. While it was obviously not a close game it did answer some key questions for Edwardsville. Unfortunately it also answers some questions for Granite City too. <ul> <li>Edwardsville is going to be lead by their point guard. As expected <strong>Quierra Love </strong>is the straw that stirs the drink. Que is always pressuring the ball on defense and pushing the ball on offense. She will make the Lady Tigers go. To start the game Que had 9 points and 2 assists in the first 3 minutes of play. This got the Tigers out to a fast start. She ended with 11 points and could have had many more.Que will make more 3 point shots this year than most people expect. She is just such a force when she is defending on the ball.</li> <li><strong>Jaylen Townsend </strong>is going to score this year and score in bunches at times. Jaylen had 6 in the first quarter and 9 in the second. She finished with 19 points while playing very limited minutes the second half. Jaylen hit a 3 in addition to hitting the mid range jumper consistently. Jaylen has shown all summer long that she was capable of increasing her scoring output this year. Now that she has the opportunity to prove that she is off to a great start.</li> <li>Edwardsville will have many different players that can provide scoring. In addition to Townsend with 19 and Love will 11 they also got 17 from freshman <strong>Sydney Harris , </strong>10 from junior transfer <strong>Kylie Burg </strong>, 9 from senior <strong>Maddy Stephen </strong>and 8 from senior <strong>Megan Silvey. </strong>Harris has a very versatile offensive game and Burg has a great shot. She hit two 3 pointers and looked very comfortable taking the shots that were given to her.</li> <li>Coach Lori Blade will have a deep bench available to her at Edwardsville. While she lost some star power from last years team she now has a roster with many players that can contribute. Fans that have seen Edwardsville play the last few years think of Coach Blade as a coach that doesn't like to substitute very often. She certainly may tighten up her rotation as the season moves ahead. For now, it looks like she may be willing to watch them compete for minutes and find the hot hand each night. There are 9 -10 girls that can provide some valauable minutes if given the opportunity. In addition to the girls already listed, <strong>Morgan Hulme</strong>, a senior, started at the other post spot and <strong>Maria Smith</strong>, came off the bench for valuable minutes.</li> <li>Coach Whitney Sykes still has an up hill battle in front of her at Granite City. The program has been down for a few years and despite leaving the Southwestern conference she will still have to get some girls to step up if they plan to win some games. The good news is that there are younger players getting the opportunity to play. Of the girls that scored for the Warriors most were under classmen including freshman Azaria Moore. They did not handle the pressure very well, but I am confident that the team is making strides if Whitney can stay patient.</li> </ul> This was not a challenging game for Edwardsville. Just like most teams though, it was probably good to play a game. It gave Coach Blade a chance to see many girls in a live game situation to see how they would react. I think she will certainly be able to find areas to improve, but I think the Lady Tigers passed the first test.