GODFREY -- Addaya Moore just loves wearing her orange basketball shoes.
”Those are my lucky shoes,” the Granite City senior said.
So far after three games, the shoes are working for the University of Illinois-bound Moore. She has scored in double figures in all three games, including a 20-point effort in the Warriors’ 49-37 win over the Alton Redbirds on Thursday at AHS.
“Addaya had a great game,” Granite City coach Whitney Sykes-Rogers said. “She had to work for everything she’s got. You’ve got to give Alton credit. They were all over her, so she had to work for every inch.”
Moore is averaging 21.6 points per game. She finished with 29 in the Warriors’ season opener against Madison on Nov. 29 and 16 against Belleville West on Tuesday.
The Warriors improved to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in Southwestern Conference play. They bounced back from a 61-33 loss to Belleville West on Tuesday at home.
“That was our first home game, so we had first game shivers and nervousness,” Moore said. “I’m not really worried about it. When things like that happen, you just got to get into the gym the next day and prepare for the next game and forget about that game.”
The Warriors play a pair of conference road games next week -- a game at O’Fallon on Monday and a game at Edwardsville on Thursday.
“We just have to keep working hard,” Moore said. “We have to fight. We can’t quit and let our heads down when things go wrong. I feel like we’ll be OK. We work hard and that’s what we’re going to do next week.”
Sykes-Rogers said her team has work on staying in control in order to be successful.
“If we can learn to slow down and play our game a little bit, I think we’ll be OK,” the Granite City coach said. “It’s way early in the season, so we have time (to improve). The main thing for us is to slow down and not panic.”
Alton dropped to 1-7 overall and 0-4 in league play. The Redbirds will play at Collinsville next Thursday.
“I thought the effort that we played with tonight was really good,” Alton coach Bob Rickman said. “I thought that we did a lot of good things, but it wasn’t good enough. Every night in our conference is so tough and there are no breaks. The thing that we’ve got to work on is to match the intensity of the other teams in our conference. We have a lot of girls that aren’t quite used to that yet. They’re learning, but you’ve got to learn fast at the varsity level.”
Allurah Bowens had nine points to lead the Redbirds.
Also for Granite City, junior Donyai Garrett scored 12 points, including eight in the second half, despite being in foul trouble for most of the game. She picked up her third foul with 5:35 left in the second quarter.
Senior Haley Crider finished with six points and six rebounds, junior Viktoria Johnson hit four free throws down the stretch to finish with four points and senior Robyn Pointer had four points.
The Warriors were 10 for 11 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. They shot 80 percent (20 for 25) for the game.
“The free throws down the stretch were huge,” Sykes-Rogers said. “The kids making the free throws down the stretch was a big deal. You don’t realize how much that is until the end of the game and you look back and you’re like, ‘If you don’t make those free throws, it’s a different game.’”
In the last meeting between the Warriors and Redbirds last year at AHS, Moore scored 21 points, including the game-winning basket with five seconds left, to lift her team to a 44-43 win. Granite City trailed by nine points in the fourth quarter.
On Thursday, the Granite City senior scored 14 points in the second half to help her team come back from a four-point, third-quarter deficit to pull off the win.
WIth the Warriors down 26-24, Moore hit two free throws with 2:24 left in the third quarter to tie it.
With 24 seconds remaining, she scored a bucket to give her team a 28-26 lead it would not relinquish.
“Something clicked in my head saying that I have to step up,” Moore said. “Coach Sykes told me that I have to step up. I’m not really familiar to playing in the inside, but I knew in this game, that’s what I had to do, so that’s what I did and it worked.”
Granite City began the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run to take a 39-27 lead.
Junior Diarra Smith and senior Alexia Rodgers guarded Moore for most of the game. They held her just to one field goal in the first half.
“Both Alexia Rodgers and Diarra Smith did a lot of things to frustrate her and stuff,” Rickman said. “It’s just that there’s going to be a breakdown every now and then and you got to hope that you’ve got people ready to help and step up and stuff.”
The Warriors and Redbirds were tied at 8-8 after the first quarter. Alton made only one field goal in the second quarter, but led 19-16 at halftime. Both teams combined for nine field goals in the first half.
“I think a lot of it has to do with the defense and the pace of the game,” Rickman said. “I think we have to focus some much energy on looking to stop one player. It kind of wears on a team. It’s hard when you got to focus on one player like that and it makes it tough.”
GRANITE CITY 49, ALTON 36
Granite City 8 8 14 19 - 49
Alton 8 11 8 9 - 36
GRANITE CITY -- Maya Ware 1, Addaya Moore 20, Donyai Garrett 12, Akila Fultz 2, Robyn Pointer 4, Haley Crider 6, Viktoria Johnson 4. 2FG-12 3FG-1 FT-20 PF-23.
ALTON -- Kivona Young 4, Alexia Rodgers 1, Allurah Bowens 9, Kenya Burnett 7, Leilani Hill 3, Diarra Smith 2, Rayn Tally 4, Deija Carter 6. 2FG-9 3FG-1 FT-15 PF-21.
