EHS girls basketball bested the O’Fallon Panthers 57-44 to win the Southwestern Conference tournament on Saturday. The Lady Tigers breezed past Collinsville 68-29 and Belleville West 45-25 to make the finals.

The win came thanks to 15 points from junior Sydney Harris, 12 points each from juniors Macy Silvey and Elle Evans and 11 points from senior Katelynne Roberts.

The victory over O’Fallon could not have been sweeter, as the 16-1 Tigers avenged their loss to the Panthers, who handed them their only loss of the season on March 3.

“We had a chip on our shoulder after losing to them,” Roberts said. “Our attitude going into the game was different than the first two times we played them. We used the loss to fuel our fire and come out for the conference championship ready for revenge.”

The game was tied late in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers pulled ahead due to a clutch 8-0 run.

“We started to really play as a team during the tournament,” Roberts said. “Everything was coming together. We were executing plays and offenses well. Even more so, our defense, especially our zone defense, was the best it had been all season.” 

This marks the Lady Tiger’s 12th straight conference championship.

EHS boy’s basketball also played in the conference final on Saturday, just falling short 30-27 to the East St. Louis Flyers.  They made it to the finals with a commanding win over Alton and their own comeback win over Belleville West.

“We were going into the tournament with the second best record, so we were confident and determined to win the tournament and have some fun, knowing it was our last few games,” senior Brennan Weller said.

The final came down to the last few seconds of the fourth quarter. After a back-and-forth game highlighted by a six-point comeback by the Tigers, Edwardsville led by one with just over a minute on the clock. East St. Louis then hit a layup, got the ball back and hit two free throws to make the lead 30-27. The Tigers were unable to answer. 

Junior Gabe James scored eight points, seniors Brennan Weller and Preston Weaver scored six and senior Jalil Roundtree scored four. 

This marks the end of the shortened season for both basketball teams, as there is no postseason this year due to IHSA regulations, but players remain optimistic about the outcome given the circumstances. 

“I would consider our season pretty successful,” senior Jalil Roundtree said. “We finished 11-3 despite only having one practice between most of our games and practice is something we value a lot. Sometimes we’d play 3 games back to back to back. I believe if we had a full traditional season, we’d make it pretty far in the playoffs.”