By: Illinois College could muster only 14 second-half points on Saturday in a 54-40 loss at Carroll.
Box Score WAUKESHA, Wis. – The offense of the Illinois College women's basketball team failed to find a rhythm on Saturday and the Lady Blues sputtered to a second straight defeat with a 54-40 loss on the road to Carroll University. IC went into the second half trailing by eight points, but managed only 14 points in the third and fourth quarters combined. The Lady Blues now stand at 9-7 (6-5 Midwest Conference), with Carroll improving to 6-9 (5-5 MWC).
The Pioneers would lead the entire way as
Sydney Lett missed on the opening possession of the game for Illinois College and Malory Christenson was fouled on the other end and made both for a 2-0 Carroll lead in the opening minute. It was a 4-0 game when
Jill Friedrich was fouled and went to the line where she knocked down two shots to cut the lead in half, but the next two baskets belonged to the Pioneers. The margin grew to 10 points late in the quarter before a
Brielle Greenleaf layup with 30 seconds left made it 18-10 after one.
The Lady Blues and Pioneers would match each other's scoring in both the second and third quarters. The closest that Illinois College would get was in the opening minutes of the second quarter thanks to a
Mallory Battefeld layup and a pair of Greenleaf free throws to slice what was a 10-point Carroll lead down to five at 21-16. The Pioneers responded back with five quick points however, and the lead hovered near the 10-point mark until an
Ashley Hoegger layup in the final minute of the half made it 34-26 at the break.
It was a quiet third quarter offensively for both teams, but Carroll was in a position to weather such a stretch. It took until the 5:05 mark of the third for Lett to hit a jumper and put the first points of the half on the board for IC. The freshman would end up accounting for all seven points that the Lady Blues scored in the quarter, the last of which came on a three-point play with 2:34 to go, momentarily pulling Illinois College within seven at 40-33. A free throw by the Pioneers restored an eight-point lead going to the final quarter.
Illinois College trailed by 12 with two minutes gone in the fourth quarter when Greenleaf took control of the offense, scoring five straight to bring the Lady Blues to within seven at 45-38. Following a turnover, Greenleaf had two looks inside to cut it back to five, but both attempts fell off the rim and the Pioneers added onto the lead with 4:25 remaining. The last gasp for IC came when Hoegger made a layup with less than three minutes to play that made it 49-40, but the Lady Blues would miss their last four shots and be forced to foul in the closing stages which extended Carroll's lead out to 14 by the end.
Hoegger was the lone IC player to reach double-figures in the scoring column, coming off the bench to tally 10 points. Both Greenleaf and Lett ended with nine apiece. Greenleaf and
Shannen Quehl shared team-high honors on the glass with five rebounds each.
Illinois College will face an important test in the race for a MWC Tournament berth on Jan. 26 when the Lady Blues play host to Grinnell College at 7 p.m. The Pioneers come into the game holding a one-game lead on IC for the fourth and final slot in the MWC race with seven contests remaining in the regular season.
