By: Hannah McGinnis was once again a force in the paint with 25 points and 12 rebounds. She had help on the perimeter thanks to 17 points from Jill Friedrich.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – For the past two seasons, Cornell has had the number of the Illinois College women's basketball team. In four meetings, the Rams hadn't won a game by less than 16 points against the Lady Blues. That all got turned around on Tuesday night at Sherman Gymnasium as IC used a big first half run to take a double-digit lead into halftime and hold off a challenge from the Rams in the closing minutes, taking home a 66-53 victory in the Midwest Conference opener. The Lady Blues improve to 3-0 (1-0 MWC) with the win.
Early on, the dominance that would soon come from Illinois College was nowhere to be found. Cornell took a 5-0 lead after the first three minutes with IC missing its first five shots.
Hannah McGinnis finally got the Lady Blues on the board with a bucket down low. That was followed by a
Maddy Keith layup and a three-pointer from
Ashley Hoegger to cap a quick 7-0 burst. The run would eventually reach 27-7 as Keith and McGinnis had their way with the Ram defense. Cornell would momentarily cut the lead down to 11, but a driving layup from
Jill Friedrich amongst the trees of the Ram frontline helped the Lady Blues into the locker room with a 33-20 lead.
The opening points of the second half came from a
Melissa Solorio bucket, but Cornell followed with a 6-0 run to slice the lead back to single-digits for the first time in more than 11 minutes of action. For the next several minutes, the IC lead hovered near 10. Solorio knocked down a three-pointer to give the Lady Blues a 54-44 advantage with seven minutes remaining, only for the offense to go cold for the next few minutes.
Early on this season, the Illinois College defense has been at the heart of the team's success. The Lady Blues had only allowed opponents to shoot 31 percent from the floor entering the night. With the offense suddenly struggling, the defense locked down and prevented Cornell from putting too much of a dent in the IC lead. Though the Lady Blues went more than three minutes without a point, they still had a 54-48 edge on the Rams going into a timeout with 3:54 remaining.
Out of the break in action, McGinnis converted a tough up-and-under through traffic to reestablish an eight-point cushion. After a stop, Friedrich splashed a three-pointer from the wing to up the lead to 59-48 with less than three minutes to play.
Cornell had one last push in it. Madie Rinehart converted a three-point play and Taylor Dicus showed off a nice touch on a mid-range jumper to pull within six once again at 59-53. Friedrich answered yet again though, carving up the Cornell defense with a driving layup and scoring the final four points of the game for Illinois College at the charity stripe.
McGinnis had her third double-double in as many games with 25 points and 12 rebounds, shooting 10-of-17 from the floor. Friedrich scored a career-high 17 points, adding four rebounds and three steals.
This weekend, Illinois College welcomes in three national powers to Sherman Gymnasium for the second annual Midwest Challenge. The three schools coming in – DePauw, Illinois Wesleyan and Washington University in St. Louis – have each won a national title within the past five years. The Lady Blues open the tournament on Saturday with a 4 p.m. matchup against the Bears of Washington University, currently ranked No. 8 in the D3hoops.com national poll. The other game features No. 9 DePauw against No. 22 Illinois Wesleyan. Saturday's winners will play in the championship game on Sunday at 4 p.m. while the two losing schools Saturday will contest the third-place game at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
