By: Hannah McGinnis became the second player in Midwest Conference history with 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, but her efforts were not enough as IC fell, 61-51 .
Box Score DE PERE, Wis. - As the Illinois College women's basketball team took the court against top-seed St. Norbert College in the Midwest Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, one thing was on their mind -- upset. Being at St. Norbert, the Lady Blues knew they had a tough task ahead of them. Illinois College looked to take control of the game early and to silence the St. Norbert crowd.
The game started out promising as
Hannah McGinnis made a three-pointer from the right wing on the first possession of the game. The Lady Blues' defense followed up the score with three straight defensive stops; including a blocked shot from
Maddy Keith and McGinnis' 1,000th rebound of her career on St. Norbert's first possession. Despite the tough Illinois College defense, the Lady Blues were unable to expand their lead.
St. Norbert soon found its rhythm and opened up a 13-2 run, as the only basket Illinois College could score in the span was a
Melissa Solorio layup from McGinnis.
Illinois College tried breaking up the run with three straight free throws, but the Green Knights caught fire again as they went on a 7-0 run to take a 20-8 lead. The high pressure defense from St. Norbert was a key to establish its early advantage. The Green Knights intercepted passes and stripped the ball when Illinois College drove to the basket, leading to easy fast break points on the other end. Illinois College looked to get back into the game in the final minute of the first half, but a 6-0 St. Norbert run capped off by a buzzer-beating layup from Heidi Van Sistine put the Green Knights up, 40-23, at the break.
In the second half, St. Norbert came out and tried to put the game away early on. The Green Knights took their largest lead of the game, 56-31, with 7:38 to go. The Illinois College defense was able to string some stops together though, leading to better production on the offensive end.
Jill Friedrich finished on a tough layup in the paint and connected on the subsequent free throw to cut the lead to 19 with just under five minutes to go.
Friedrich and McGinnis continued the comeback for the Lady Blues, as they saw the lead drop down to 13 with two minutes to play. The fight never stopped in the Lady Blues as Solorio hit a three-pointer off an assist from
Kate Russow. That was followed by a layup plus one for McGinnis trimming the score to 61-51 in favor of St. Norbert. Unfortunately the clock was working against the Lady Blues and the Green Knights dribbled out the remainder of the clock.
Points off turnovers and points in the paint were the keys to the game for St. Norbert. The Green Knights held a 23-4 advantage off turnovers and outscored IC, 34-18, in the paint.
McGinnis led all players in scoring with 21 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Friedrich added 13 points off the bench and Solorio had 10 for the Lady Blues.
Illinois College closes out its season at 14-10 (11-7 MWC), the team's best record since 2009-2010. St. Norbert advances to play Cornell College in tomorrow's MWC championship game.
