By: Ashley Hoegger was one of three players in double-figures on the evening for Illinois College, setting a new career high with 18 points.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – After two weeks off since its last contest, the Illinois College women's basketball team certainly appeared eager to return to action. Facing Blackburn in the final non-conference game of the season, an early 13-0 run gave the Lady Blues a large margin to work with and IC quickly turned the contest into a rout, dominating nearly every phase of the game in a 92-56 victory.
Melissa Solorio led all scorers in the contest for Illinois College (6-4), pouring in 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field.
Up by a score of 7-4 after five minutes, a
Hannah McGinnis layup ignited a 13-0 run from the Lady Blues to take a 20-4 lead with 12 minutes to play in the first half. Blackburn would eventually find some limited success on the offensive end of the floor, but the Beavers were no match for the lights-out shooting of Illinois College. The Lady Blues connected on 16-of-24 shots in the opening half, including 5-of-9 from behind the arc. With Solorio scoring 13 points in the first half and McGinnis adding another 12, IC held a 51-20 lead at the break.
Blackburn opened the second half playing much better basketball and at one point was actually able to trim the 31-point halftime deficit down to 22.
Jill Friedrich stopped IC's struggles with a driving layup and McGinnis followed with a three-point play that picked up the fourth foul on Blackburn star Briana Rae, forcing the forward to the bench for an extended amount of time. In her absence, a lead that had been cut to 56-34 ballooned to 71-34 after a Solorio three-pointer. The Lady Blues led by as many as 40 points as the clock worked its way towards triple zeros, before settling for the 92-56 victory.
McGinnis contributed a double-double to the Illinois College cause with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Coming into the night ranked 10th all-time on the IC scoring charts, McGinnis zoomed past Courtney Allen and Candy Norville and now is eighth all-time in scoring for the Lady Blues with 1,117 career points.
Ashley Hoegger also reached double-figures for IC, establishing a new career high with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting. She joined Solorio in making four treys in the contest.
Mickalah York added a career-high nine points.
Making her first career start,
Alyssa Garde had four points, four rebounds and five assists.
Maddy Keith added eight points, five boards and five assists.
Illinois College will restart Midwest Conference play on Jan. 3 with a trip to take on the Carroll University Pioneers. The tip-off from Waukesha, Wis. is set for 1 p.m.
