By: Ahead by 19 at halftime, Illinois College almost let the Foresters come all the way back before hitting free throws down the stretch to hold off the visitors.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's basketball team stormed ahead in the first half and looked to be cruising to a Midwest Conference victory midway through Wednesday night's game with Lake Forest College. The Foresters had other ideas however, slicing what was a 19-point halftime deficit down to one point on multiple occasions late in the game before the Lady Blues finally emerged with a 70-64 victory. IC improves to 6-12 (4-5 MWC), sending LFC to 8-10 (6-5 MWC) on the season.
Illinois College's fast start to the first half started right off the opening tip. Sydney Himmelman tapped the ball to
Grace Yaunches and she found a cutting
Shannen Quehl for a 2-0 lead. Quehl continued to be involved in the offense by finding
Brielle Greenleaf for a 4-0 lead and another bucket from the junior made it 6-2.
After Lake Forest used a timeout, the Lady Blues made sure it was to no avail, scoring on a Greenleaf back-cut. Illinois College made its first five field goal attempts overall, yet the lead was only 10-7 after three minutes. A Shannon Propst block on one end of the floor helped lead to a transition opportunity and
Sydney Lett sank a 15-footer to double up Lake Forest, 14-7. The Lady Blues would lead by as many as eight points in the opening period, taking a 21-16 edge into the second quarter.
Yaunches was nearly unstoppable in the second quarter, scoring 12 of her career-high 23 in one 10-minute stretch. She opened the quarter with two straight buckets, kicking off an 8-0 run for IC that included a third-chance Himmelman basket and a Greenleaf floater for a 29-16 lead.
Both teams went through a scoreless stretch midway through the quarter, but Illinois College was the first team to emerge from the drought.
McKenzie Skaggs finally broke through, hitting a short jumper to make it 35-24. The next time down the floor, Yaunches hit a three-pointer, and Quehl capped the 7-0 run with a steal and score for a 40-24 advantage. In the final 60 seconds of the half, Yaunches rebounded her own miss and scored, then ended the half with another three-pointer, making it 45-26 at the break.
The tide turned in the third quarter. More than 90 seconds went by before Lake Forest made a three-pointer to get the scoring started once again. That began an opening 7-0 run for the visitors before Greenleaf finally got Illinois College on the board in the half. The IC lead hovered around 10 throughout much of the quarter, but the Foresters were able to get it to single-digits on a Hannah O'Day put-back basket just before the horn, making it 53-45 going into the fourth.
The Foresters got the first basket of the fourth quarter, but Megan Price swished a big three in response for Illinois College, making it 56-47. That proved to be a big shot for the Lady Blues, because Lake Forest came back with eight straight points, pulling within one, 56-55, with 7:40 to go. From there, Yaunches and Quehl connected on two more shots that allowed the Lady Blues to keep their noses out in front and not let the Foresters complete the comeback.
Illinois College was ahead, 63-62, with less than 90 seconds to play when Quehl was fouled and sent to the line. She made one of two, and the Lady Blues then got a stop as Kelsey Burton turned the ball over. Early in the shot clock, Yaunches went to the rack and scored with 52 seconds remaining, giving IC a four-point cushion. After another empty trip for Lake Forest, Yaunches hit two at the line for a 68-62 edge with 27.8 seconds left. With time as the main factor, the Foresters pulled within four but could get no closer and Quehl hit two at the charity stripe to ice it.
Yaunches added six assists to her impressive point total on the night, helping Illinois College earn the season sweep of the Foresters. Quehl ended with a double-double of 16 points and 14 rebounds. Greenleaf had 14 points on the night. Lake Forest was led by 22 from Jaianna Brooks.
Illinois College returns home to Sherman Gymnasium on Jan. 27, hosting MWC leaders Ripon College in a 3 p.m. contest.
