By: Down by eight points with nine minutes remaining, the Lady Blues caught fire and blew past the Scots on Wednesday night.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – A strong performance from
Maddy Keith helped the Illinois College women's basketball team escape with a 66-60 win over Monmouth on Wednesday night at Sherman Gymnasium. Keith's 17 points matched a career high, but she also set new career highs by hauling in 16 rebounds and blocking four shots. With
Hannah McGinnis also supplying a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds, the Lady Blues were able to overcome occasional shooting woes and storm back for the win.
Carrying the offense for a large chunk of the first half was
Ashley Hoegger. Each team started off relatively slowly from the field, but Hoegger erased a five-point Illinois College deficit with consecutive three-pointers, putting the Lady Blues up, 15-14, with 9:40 left until the half. She wasn't done just yet. After a jumper from Keith as well as back-to-back blocks from the senior guard, Hoegger connected on another trey – her fourth of the first half – to give IC its largest lead of the game, 29-18. That bucket with 4:38 to go would be the last point of the half for the Lady Blues however, allowing Monmouth to pull within two at halftime.
A 10-2 run to start the second half was capped by a transition three-pointer from
Kate Russow, putting Illinois College up, 39-29, and forcing a timeout from the Monmouth bench with less than 17 minutes to play. The Scots showed resiliency by reeling off 11 unanswered points out of the break in action, part of a run that would eventually reach 20-2 when Monmouth took its largest lead of the game, 49-41, with nine minutes to play.
Badly in need of a basket, IC worked the ball to McGinnis down low and were rewarded with two points. Cold up to that point,
Melissa Solorio followed with an important three-pointer to bring the Lady Blues to within three. Monmouth maintained a small lead throughout much of the late stages, but foul trouble began to wear away at the Scots. Solorio tied the game at 56-56 with her second three-ball of the half and Keith followed with two free throws after Monmouth's leading scorer, Paige Nord, picked up her fifth foul.
Tied at 58-58 with 90 seconds left,
Jill Friedrich nailed two free throws and then hit a straightaway jumper with 48 ticks remaining to put the Lady Blues up, 62-58. Four free throws in the final 30 seconds were the last nails in the coffin for the Scots as IC improved to 7-5 (4-3 Midwest Conference) with the win.
Keith and McGinnis were joined in double-figures by Hoegger, who ended the game with 14 points. Friedrich stepped up when it mattered most to end the night with eight points, while Russow added five off the bench. Keith rounded out her stat line with three steals.
Illinois College now faces a two-game road trip that begins on Jan. 10 as the Lady Blues travel to take on Lake Forest College. Tip-time on the north side of Chicago is slated for 1 p.m.
