Lady Blues Send Message in Defeat of St. Norbert

Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's basketball team shook up the Midwest Conference title race with a 76-69 victory over St. Norbert College on Saturday afternoon. The Green Knights had come into the contest as winners of 26 consecutive MWC games, and as winners of 30 in a row against MWC opponents including the MWC Tournament. The Lady Blues now top the conference at 4-2 (3-0 MWC), while St. Norbert drops to 2-3 (1-1 MWC).

Carly Cameron had her way at times against the St. Norbert defense and it started with a baseline jumper that tied the game at 2-2 in the opening minute. After a couple scoreless minutes, Alyssa Garde put the Lady Blues ahead with a second-chance three-pointer for a 5-2 lead. Layups from Brielle Greenleaf and Grace Yaunches extended the lead and a three-pointer from Jaicie Halleman gave IC a quick double-digit lead at 16-6. A pair of free throws in the last 10 seconds of the quarter pulled the Green Knights to within five at 20-15.

Early in the second quarter, Sydney Lett had back-to-back layups to take a 26-17 lead. Later on, Lett knocked in a pair of free throws to reestablish a 10-point lead at 37-27 with only 2:40 remaining in the half. St. Norbert proved it wasn't going to be an easy game however, going on a 9-1 run to close within two points in the final 20 seconds of the half before Cameron was able to can two free throws to give the Lady Blues a 40-36 advantage at the break.

The third quarter was owned by Illinois College for nine minutes, but St. Norbert began to show signs of a comeback late. Scoring seemingly every time down the floor, the Lady Blues took their largest lead of the game at 62-46 on a Cameron jumper with 90 seconds remaining in the quarter. In the final minutes, St. Norbert's Jill Kleiman hit a three and Regan Carmichael connected on a jump shot to make it 62-51 with 10 minutes left.

The Green Knights continued to dial up the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter. A layup by Macie Zurfluh with just over 30 seconds gone in the final quarter pulled St. Norbert to within six at 62-56. Faced with a full court defense that was scrambling all over the floor, the Lady Blues took advantage of the chaos by getting to the free throw line repeatedly. The lone IC field goal of the fourth came when Cameron was fouled on a layup and then converted the three-point play for a 68-59 lead. 

Later, Shannen Quehl rolled in a pair of free throws to put Illinois College up by ten points again at 70-60. St. Norbert closed to within five points at 70-65, but by that time only 1:18 remained. Greenleaf was fouled with exactly a minute to play and made both at the line to give IC a three-possession lead. Yaunches, Quehl and McKenzie Skaggs all made free throws in the final seconds to seal the win for the Lady Blues.

One night after scoring a career-high 19 points, Cameron came back with 26 points and nine rebounds on Saturday to lead all scorers and rebounders. Greenleaf had 17 for Illinois College along with seven rebounds and six steals, and Yaunches had 13 points off the bench.

Illinois College concludes its home stand on Dec. 7, facing Lake Forest College at Sherman Gymnasium at 5:30 p.m.