By: After a slow start, Illinois College jumped all over MacMurray in the second quarter to take command in an eventual 80-48 victory.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – Shrugging off a turnover-filled first quarter, the Illinois College women's basketball team surged past MacMurray in the second quarter and never looked back, claiming an 80-48 win over their cross-town rivals on Wednesday night at Sherman Gymnasium. Four players scored in double-figures for the Lady Blues, led by 13 points apiece from
Melissa Solorio and
Sydney Lett. IC improved to 2-0 with the victory while dropping the Highlanders to 0-2.
While the final wasn't indicative of it, the first quarter was close between IC and MacMurray. The game was tied six times in the opening 10 minutes and the Lady Blues didn't have a lead until Lett stole a pass and scored on a jumper to take a 9-7 lead. Tied at 12-12 with the clock ticking down,
Hanna Bergkoetter corralled an offensive rebound and scored on the putback with five seconds left to give the Lady Blues a 14-12 lead going into the second quarter.
MacMurray tied the game one last time with 30 seconds elapsed in the second to make it 14-14, but that was answered on the other end by a pair of Bergkoetter free throws. The next Highlander possession ended with a turnover and
Jaicie Halleman knocked down a three-pointer with the Lady Blues in transition to up the lead to 19-14.
Brielle Greenleaf and
Alyssa Garde followed with hoops to make it a 9-0 burst before MacMurray could stem the tide. The lead quickly moved to 10 with a Garde triple, making it 26-16 and a 12-0 run later made it 40-17 with less than two minutes until halftime. Illinois College went to the break holding a 42-23 lead.
The Highlanders made one brief run at getting back into the contest in the third quarter, going on an 11-2 stretch capped by an Ashley Huels three-pointer with 3:48 remaining that forced the Lady Blues into a timeout. Order was quickly restored the rest of the way however, as IC scored the final 12 points of the quarter to take a 67-40 lead into the fourth.
That 12-0 run reached 15-0 on an
Ashley Hoegger three-pointer which made it 70-40 in the opening minute of the final quarter, and the game was long decided as a few new faces made their IC debuts down the stretch.
Mallory Battefeld,
McKenzie Skaggs and
Amina Wynn all scored the first points of their Lady Blues careers in the second half.
Bergkoetter and Garde each chipped in with 11 points on the night, while
Jill Friedrich ended with seven. Battefeld and Bergkoetter shared game-high rebound honors with seven.
Following their perfect start to the non-conference season, Illinois College dips into Midwest Conference play next week with a road trip to Cornell College on Nov. 24. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in Mount Vernon, Iowa.
