Lawrence Surges Past Lady Blues, 68-56

Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill.- Despite a solid start to the game and a lead that extended into the third quarter, Illinois College fell to Lawrence University on Saturday by a score of 68-56. IC falls to 4-10 (3-3 Midwest Conference). Lawrence improves to 4-11 (2-5 MWC).

Sydney Lett put Illinois College on the board early, hitting a layup to put the Lady Blues up, 2-0. Olivia Hoesley drilled a three-pointer to give Lawrence the lead, 3-2, three minutes into the game. From there, Megan Price scored five points as part of a 7-0 IC run, reclaiming the lead for the Lady Blues, 9-3.

Kenya Earl sank a pair of free throws to pull Lawrence within three, 11-8, midway through the quarter. Illinois College countered with another three-pointer from Price, pushing the lead back to six, 14-8.

Hoesley hit a three-pointer to pull within three, 14-11, with under four minutes left in the quarter. From there, Illinois College scored the final four points, with McKenzie Skaggs nailing a jumper with 25 seconds left, ending the first quarter with Illinois College up, 18-11.

The second quarter started with back-and-forth play, with Skaggs sinking a free throw to bring the game to 21-14. Lawrence responded with a 9-0 run, giving the Vikings their first lead of the quarter, 23-21.

Five straight points from Brielle Greenleaf put the lead back into Illinois College's hands, 26-23. That lead was maintained by Greenleaf, sinking a bucket to carry IC into halftime with a three-point advantage, 30-27.

Earl started the second half with a layup, cutting Lawrence's deficit to one, 30-29. Leah Reeves gave the lead to the Vikings, hitting a pair of free throws to go up, 33-32. Illinois College's Shannen Quehl converted a layup to take the lead back, 34-33.

Earl and Hoesley made consecutive jumpers to give Lawrence the upper hand, 37-34. Sydney Himmelman hit both free throws to pull Illinois College within one, 37-36, halfway through the third quarter. 

Lawrence scored two straight buckets to give the Vikings their largest lead of the quarter, 42-36, with just over a minute remaining. Following a triple from Skaggs, Lauren Deveikis scored for the first time in the game, giving Lawrence a five-point lead heading into the final quarter, 44-39.

Lett began the last quarter with a layup to set the score at 44-41. After that, Earl capped off a 10-0 Lawrence run, seeing the Vikings take a commanding lead, 54-41, with under five minutes left in the game.

Illinois College came within single digits one last time, with Price nailing a jumper to bring the score to 56-47. Erin Hill extended the lead back to 13 points after a pair of free throws, 66-53. Following IC's Madi Peyton's three-pointer, Hill hit two more free throws to ice the game with the Vikings on top, 68-56.

Greenleaf finished the night with 13 points for Illinois College, including a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line. Price hit double figures, scoring 10. Quehl pulled down 11 rebounds for IC. Earl scored a game-high 23 points. Hoesley followed up with 14 points, Reeves tallied 12, and Hill scored 10 for Lawrence.

Illinois College returns to the court on Jan. 17, when the Lady Blues are set to face conference-foe Knox College. The game is slated for 7:30 p.m.