MOUNT VERNON, Iowa – The Illinois College women's basketball team had an 18-point halftime lead erased by Cornell College on Saturday, but the Lady Blues regrouped and hung on to earn the 80-78 road win. IC ups its record to 4-6 (1-3 Midwest Conference) with the victory.
IC got off to a roaring start, taking a 29-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Lady Blues actually trailed, 9-8, halfway through the quarter, before catching fire.
Megan Price hit three triples in the final three minutes of the frame, including one just before the horn.
Sydney Lett began the second quarter with a short jumper to increase the lead to 31-14 before the Rams started having some success on the offensive end. A brief rally for Cornell ended with a Rose Shimaoka layup, cutting it to a 35-25 Illinois College lead with four minutes remaining in the first half. The rest of the half was all Lady Blues. Two free throws on the other end from
Carly Cameron started a 10-2 run the rest of the way, increasing the halftime cushion to 45-27.
Unwilling to go quietly at home, Cornell came out of the break with an 8-0 run before
McKenzie Skaggs hit a triple after more than three minutes had elapsed. The Rams continued to chip away and an and-one jumper from Shimaoka just before the end of the third quarter made it 60-51 in favor of Illinois College with 10 minutes still to play.
Another three-pointer from Skaggs gave IC a 63-53 lead with nine minutes to play, but Cornell would outscore the Lady Blues, 16-5, over the next four minutes to take a 69-68 lead on two Alison Kelly foul shots. Now having to find off a good bit of momentum from the home team, the Lady Blues turned to Cameron. The junior followed up her own miss with a rebound and earned two shots at the line with 4:49 to play. After hitting on both and then tacking on a three-pointer a minute later, IC was back up, 73-69, and would not trail again.
Cameron ended the day with 20 points and nine rebounds, leading Illinois College in both categories. Price scored 11 off the bench and
Grace Yaunches added 10 as well as five assists. Lett led IC with six assists on the afternoon.
Illinois College is back in action on Dec. 16, traveling to face Grinnell College at 3 p.m.
