By: Already up by 17 points at the half, the Lady Blues allowed only 14 points in the second half of an 83-44 rout on Saturday.
Box Score
APPLETON, Wis. – One night after a tough loss to St. Norbert, the Illinois College women's basketball team got its offense back on track and gave Lawrence University nothing easy on the defensive end, running away for an 83-44 win on Saturday afternoon. After going up by 17 points at halftime, the Lady Blues allowed only 14 second-half points to the Vikings. IC improves to 9-4 (6-2 Midwest Conference), while sending skidding Lawrence to 2-11 (0-8 MWC).
After scoring 48 points on Friday night, Illinois College nearly had that amount in 20 minutes on Saturday. The first quarter was the key as IC led by 11 after the opening 10 minutes of play.
Carly Cameron started the scoring with a three-pointer and
Grace Yaunches had four point in an opening 9-2 run to set the tone. The Lady Blues benefitted from attacking the rim as well, repeatedly getting fouled and converting 10-of-13 free throws as they took a 29-18 lead into the second quarter.
Lawrence got off to a quick start in the second quarter and were twice able to pull within six points, but a 7-0 run sparked by five points from Cameron ballooned the lead into double-digits again and Illinois College was rarely threatened from there. A layup by
McKenzie Skaggs just before the horn gave the Lady Blues a 47-30 lead.
The second half was all about the Illinois College defense. Lawrence shot less than 18 percent from the floor and committed 15 turnovers as the Lady Blues turned the game into a blowout. A layup by Shonell Benjamin at the 13:04 mark cut the IC lead to 20 momentarily, but the Lady Blues allowed only one more made field goal the rest of the contest. By the end of the quarter, an
Ashley Hoegger layup had extended the Illinois College lead to 61-39.
IC showed off its depth in the fourth quarter, ending the game on a 20-3 run over nearly nine minutes of action. All the points in the quarter except for one
Mickalah York layup came from bench players and the Vikings had no answer for the Lady Blues on either end of the court. Amazingly, all 16 players who saw the floor for Illinois College scored on the day.
The Lady Blues were led by Cameron's 14 points, but she was helped by Yaunches with 12 points,
Shannen Quehl with 11 and
Brielle Greenleaf with 10. Bench players combined to contribute 42 of the 83 points scored by IC.
With the win, Illinois College moved into a three-way tie for second place in the MWC along with St. Norbert and Ripon College. The Lady Blues face another big test on Jan. 18 with a road game at Knox College starting at 5:30 p.m.
