By: Tied at halftime, Illinois College dominated play in the second half and defeated the Buccaneers, 69-50.
Box Score BELOIT, Wis. – In a tale of two halves, the Illinois College women's basketball team broke open their game with Beloit College on Saturday afternoon, storming to a 69-50 win over the Buccaneers after going into the break tied at 31-31. Four starters scored in double-figures for the Lady Blues, led by
Hannah McGinnis, who owned the paint with 22 points and 16 rebounds. It was an important result in Midwest Conference play for IC, who maintains its spot in third place in the standings while improving to 9-5 (6-3 MWC).
Joining McGinnis in double-figures was
Jill Friedrich, who chipped in 19 points and six rebounds.
Maddy Keith notched a double-double for the third consecutive game with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Ashley Hoegger added 10 points in the contest for the Lady Blues.
In the opening minutes of the game, a McGinnis three-pointer and layup allowed IC to open up an 11-6 lead after six minutes. Undeterred, Beloit would come back to lead, 27-20, after an 8-0 run. The Lady Blues would end the half on an 11-4 run however, taking the teams into halftime all knotted up.
Coming out for the second half, Illinois College immediately took command with a 10-0 stretch that was capped by a Hoegger three-pointer to take a 41-31 lead with 15:20 to play. Another full minute would go by before the Buccaneers would manage to score their first bucket, a layup that cut the IC lead to eight with 14:12 remaining.
Beloit would eventually slice the Illinois College lead down to three with 10 minutes to go, but the Lady Blues came back with a 9-0 run in less than three minutes to go back up, 53-41. Friedrich had two baskets in the decisive stretch and the Buccaneers would never recover.
"Beloit really came out with a lot of intensity and had us on our heels for most of the first half," said Head Coach
Lora Westling. "I was proud of how our team responded after the break, particularly in the areas of rebounding and defensive intensity. Jill (Friedrich) did a nice job of keeping us organized and really played with some fire on both ends of the floor. Our starters regrouped and we got some quality minutes from Alyssa (Garde), Kate (Russow) and Mickalah (York) off the bench."
Beloit's Lana Wieseman came in as the MWC's leading scorer at 20.1 points per game, but was limited to 15 in the defeat. The Buccaneers shot 0-of-12 from behind the arc, while IC enjoyed a 49-37 edge in rebounds.
McGinnis moved up to fifth all-time in scoring at Illinois College, now with 1,171 points for her career. She surpassed Angie Sapp (1,152 points, 1993-97) in the game.
"We have a lot to work on but this team is continuing to improve every day which is exciting to be around," Westling added.
After picking up two road wins in the past seven days, the Lady Blues return home to Sherman Gymnasium looking to get some revenge against Knox College on Wednesday night starting at 5:30 p.m. The Prairie Fire were able to deal IC its first loss in MWC play this season back on Dec. 9 in a high-scoring 100-89 game.
