Preview: O'Fallon Panthers vs. Alton Redbirds
The O'Fallon Panthers will head out on the road to face off against the Alton Redbirds at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
O'Fallon had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 15.5 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. They were the clear victor by a 52-32 margin over Edwardsville. The matchup was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 33-11.
O'Fallon can attribute much of their success to Haeli Tart, who scored 18 points along with three steals, and D'Myjah Bolds, who scored 16 points along with five rebounds and three steals. Bolds is on a roll when it comes to blocks, as she's now posted two or more in the last four games she's played. Danielle Newman was another key contributor, scoring eight points.
Meanwhile, Alton had already won six in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 30.3 points), and they went ahead and made it seven on Tuesday. They really took it to East St. Louis for the full four quarters, racking up a 73-29 victory on the road. The score at the end of the third wound up being the final score as Alton just coasted through the last quarter.
O'Fallon's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 20-5. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 66.8 points per game. As for Alton, their win bumped their record up to 24-1.
O'Fallon came up short against Alton when the teams last played back in December of 2023, falling 55-50. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Alton's Kiyoko Proctor, who scored 19 points along with four steals. Now that O'Fallon knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? There's only one way to find out.
