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When the Cahokia Conference divided into two divisions the long time rival Dupo Tigers and Columbia Eagles found themselves separated. The Eagles playing with the larger schools in the Mississippi Division and the Tigers with the smaller schools in the Kaskaskia Division. While the Lady Tigers have enjoyed some success in recent years in part as a result of the split in the conference, the Lady Eagles have continued to enjoy competitive dominance over the Lady Tigers. And that was in full view Monday night as the Columbia Lady Eagles Varsity Basketball team defeated the Dupo Lady Tigers 82-31.
The Lady Eagles came into Monday night’s game with a 9-9 record, played in two holiday tournaments in December and last played a week ago against Valmeyer. The Lady Tigers on the other hand were 2-9, played in no holiday tournaments, last played a game on December 21st against Valmeyer and looked like a team that hasn’t played a game in three weeks. In addition, the Lady Tigers are not blessed with team depth, have no junior varsity team and often do not have enough players to scrimmage. Making it really difficult to prepare a team for a varsity basketball season, especially in the Cahokia Conference. Lady Tigers Coach Jill Puckett said, “We’ve practiced and maybe a game or two would have helped us, but this is a mental game for us. Especially when we play here on Columbia’s court, we get down before we ever get here.”
The Lady Eagles started the game with an 11-0 run and never looked back. The Lady Tigers simply did not have their game together to compete with the Lady Eagles. At no point in the game did the Lady Tigers close in or make a serious run at the Lady Eagles. Viewing the talent on the floor the Lady Eagles weren’t that much more impressive than the Lady Tigers but were obviously more prepared and more practiced. Coach Puckett said, “We didn’t rebound and our girls didn’t play strong enough under the basket. Our two forwards were man handled by their forwards. Our girls weren’t fighting through the picks or fighting to post up on them. That’s a struggle for us especially when we don’t have anyone to practice against. It’s hard to push each other when there’s no one to push you. When there’s no competition in practice it shows in the games.”
Despite the loss the Lady Tigers have a real opportunity to bounce back and double their win total by the week’s end. They face the equally struggling New Athens Yellow Jackets in Cahokia Conference Kaskaskia Division play on Thursday evening and then travel to Evansville to face the fledgling Evansville Lutheran High squad. The Lady Tigers already have an early season win over New Athens in the Cat Classic and the Evansville squad is even younger and smaller then the Lady Tigers. Coach Puckett said, “I’m hoping that this loss will light a fire in them for Thursday’s game at New Athens, which is a very important game because it’s a conference game.”
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