BELLEVILLE -- The Edwardsville girls’ basketball reached the 20-win mark for the 15th consecutive season with Tuesday’s Southwestern Conference victory over Belleville East.
The Tigers are also another step closer to claiming a ninth consecutive SWC championship after the 61-35 win over Belleville East.
“This is a great win. We might see them later in the postseason, so it’s good that we won now,” said EHS forward Morgan Hulme, who finished with five points and a team-high nine rebounds.
Ranked No. 1 in the state, EHS is 20-0, including 9-0 in the SWC with five games left on the league schedule.
O’Fallon is second in the conference at 9-2 with three league games remaining, including a showdown at Edwardsville on Feb. 6.
The Tigers have won 36 consecutive and 125 of their last 126 conference games.
“It’s a long conference season and this conference is good and competitive. I’m proud of the kids for what they’ve been able to do over the years in the conference,” EHS coach Lori Blade said.
Belleville East is now 13-8, including 8-3 in the SWC.
After losing to the Tigers 70-35 on Dec. 5, Belleville East couldn’t take advantage of EHS getting into foul trouble Tuesday.
The Lancers led 5-0 and EHS forward Myriah Noodel-Haywood was on the bench with two fouls with 6:21 remaining in the first quarter. She didn’t return for the rest of the half.
The Tigers, though, would rally behind Kate Martin, who scored eight points in the first and helped Edwardsville on an 8-2 run to take an 11-10 lead.
“We couldn’t have started any worse than we did. They were ready to jam it right at us,” Blade said. “We got knocked back on our heels and then we responded really well and did settle in.”
EHS led 14-11 after the first.
The Tigers had their lead cut to 16-14 after a 3-pointer by Brittany Nitz for the Lancers, but Edwardsville closed the half on a 14-0 run.
Rachel Pranger had six points during the run, and Megan Silvey hit a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to extend the lead to 30-14.
The Tigers made five of six shots during the run, while the Lancers missed seven straight.
Silvey, who also hit a 3-pointer in the second half, and Hulme played big minutes off the bench for EHS in the first half.
Hulme scored three points and grabbed seven rebounds in the first half, while Silvey had five points.
“I like to work hard and this program has taught me to work hard and get rebounds for the team,” Hulme said. “The whole varsity team has a really fast pace compared to the junior varsity team. It takes time to get used to that. You just have to keep the pace up, get rebounds and work really, really hard.”
Blade commended Hulme and Silvey for their work off the bench.
“Morgan had huge minutes. Her and Silvey had really good minutes. That was good to see, and we needed that,” Blade said. “Between Rachel and Morgan, I thought they did a good job on B’Aunce (Carter). Our depth got challenged tonight, and they did really well.
“Silvey scored points, but the best part about what she did tonight was her defense. She toughened up on defense, which is good to see. Morgan always does. She’s a great helper, passer and does what she’s capable of doing to help us out.”
Noodel-Haywood returned to the court in the second half, and she took over on the offensive end.
Noodel-Haywood scored 10 points during a 17-4 run that helped put the Tigers ahead 51-20 after three quarters.
“I wanted to get out there badly. This was my second time coming here and getting into foul trouble in the first quarter. Watching your team do so good and grinding, you just want to get back out there. I had a bunch of rage to get back out there,” said Noodel Haywood, who finished with a game-high 14 points.
Edwardsville enjoyed its biggest lead of the game at 61-25 after two free throws by Quierra Love with 3:13 to go in the fourth.
Belleville East scored the final 10 points.
Edwardsville shot 46 percent (24 of 52) from the floor. It also turned the ball over 18 times.
Pranger had 12 points and eight rebounds and Martin finished with 11 points and eight rebounds to join Noodel-Haywood in double figures.
Silvey added eight points.
Belleville East, which got 13 points from Carter, shot 19 percent (10 of 52) and turned the ball over 13 times.
Martin held East’s Kaylah Rainey to six points on 1-of-9 shooting. She entered the game averaging nearly nine points.
“Kate did a real good job,” Blade said of Martin’s defense on Rainey, who averaged a team-high 15.3 points last season.
Edwardsville returns home to face Belleville West at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Tigers defeated the Maroons 71-17 on Dec. 7 in Belleville.