By: Attacking defensive pressure from Cornell allowed the Rams to open up a 20-point halftime lead and walk away with a 77-58 win over the Lady Blues.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's basketball team suffered a fourth straight defeat on Saturday, dropping a 77-58 decision to Cornell College at Sherman Gymnasium. A strong start by the Rams allowed the visitors to lead by 13 after the first 10 minutes and by 20 at halftime. From there, Cornell cruised to the finish, maintaining second place in the Midwest Conference with a record of 13-4 (10-2 MWC). The Lady Blues fall to 9-9 (6-7 MWC) on the season.
Cornell never trailed in the game, going up 3-0 after Diamond Boyd went to the line on two separate occasions.
Jill Friedrich brought Illinois College within a point with a corner jumper, but a 7-0 run by the Rams followed to increase the lead to 10-2.
Jaicie Halleman came off the bench on fire, hitting her first three three-pointers to shrink the gap to 14-11 with less than four minutes remaining in the quarter. Her third three was answered by one from Cornell's Kellie Kuzmanic though, starting a 9-0 run before
Sydney Lett scored with 30 seconds left. Another three-pointer, this one from Tana Kemmer, put the Rams ahead by a score of 26-13 after one.
Though Friedrich and
Alyssa Garde each had early buckets for the Lady Blues in the second quarter, the cushion grew to 20 points for Cornell halfway through the period as turnovers mounted for IC.
Brielle Greenleaf converted a three-point play with 3:03 left until the half, momentarily cutting the deficit to 38-22, but the Rams took a 45-25 lead into halftime.
Facing a tough climb, Illinois College played hard throughout the third quarter to not fall any further back, but an offensive drought over the last three minutes resulted in a quarter-ending 8-0 run from Cornell to go ahead by 32 heading into the fourth. IC kept battling and cut into the Ram lead over the final 10 minutes. Friedrich and
Ashley Hoegger each knocked down triples early in the fourth quarter and
Shannen Quehl accounted for seven straight points in the final minutes to take the deficit back down to 20. The freshman added a three-point play in the closing seconds to supply the Lady Blues with their final points of the game.
Halleman and Quehl each ended the contest with 10 points to lead IC. Greenleaf added nine points and four rebounds and Friedrich had eight points and a pair of assists.
Illinois College will look to break its slide on Feb. 3 with a road game against a Beloit College team they beat at Sherman Gymnasium back on Jan. 16. The Lady Blues and Buccaneers will get started at 7:30 p.m.
