By: Up only three at the break, IC outscored the Prairie Fire 55-34 in the second half to get the win.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – A hot start to Midwest Conference play continued for the Illinois College women's basketball team on Tuesday night as the Lady Blues took control in the second half to defeat Knox College, 85-61. IC improved to 5-2 (3-0 MWC) with the win, while the Prairie Fire dropped to 4-2 (1-2 MWC).
Knox entered the night averaging over 94 points a game on offense, but Illinois College stifled the Prairie Fire in the first quarter. Tied at 2-2 after 40 seconds, the Lady Blues went on a 12-0 run over the next six minutes to take a 14-2 lead before Naja Woods finally got Knox back on the board. Five more points from
Alyssa Garde and
Hanna Bergkoetter followed to give IC a 19-5 edge and the Lady Blues led 21-9 after 10 minutes.
The second quarter took an abrupt turn with more than five minutes elapsing before the Lady Blues scored via two
Ashley Hoegger free throws. By that time, Knox had the IC lead down to 23-16 and the Lady Blues went to the break ahead by only three, 30-27.
Illinois College came out on a mission in the third quarter. Bergkoetter had the first four points of the half and
Melissa Solorio scored on a fast break to make it 36-27 before a Hailey Leinart three momentarily stemmed the tide for Knox. It wouldn't last long though. Solorio answered that three-pointer with a jumper that started a 10-0 run to take a 46-30 advantage and a
Jill Friedrich layup in the final 20 seconds gave the Lady Blues a 55-41 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The lead was 15 when Friedrich hit a short corner jumper and
Shannen Quehl converted a three-point play to give the Lady Blues a 68-48 lead with 6:13 remaining. The lead hovered near the 20-point mark nearly the entire way after that as both teams piled up fouls and points in the final minutes of the game. IC ended on an 8-0 run courtesy of Quehl, Garde and
Sydney Lett in the last 90 seconds.
Lett came off the bench for Illinois College to score a game-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting. Bergkoetter had 12 points and 12 rebounds for IC and Friedrich had 15 points and four steals. Solorio ended with 11 points and Quehl had 10.
Brielle Greenleaf ended with five points, five rebounds and five steals. IC forced 38 turnovers from the Prairie Fire on the night.
The Lady Blues will try to keep their perfect start to MWC play intact on Dec. 12 as they host Ripon College in Sherman Gymnasium at 3 p.m.
