FULTON, Mo. – The Illinois College women's basketball team couldn't buy a bucket on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon, they couldn't stop scoring. In a back-and-forth game, the Lady Blues outlasted Greenville University by a score of 90-85 to even its record at 1-1 on the season.
A three-pointer from Emily Reinneck gave Greenville its largest lead of the day at 13-7 with about seven minutes gone in the contest, but Illinois College responded and had leveled the score at 17-17 by the end of the quarter after consecutive layups from
Kendra Bass.
In the last four minutes of the second quarter, Illinois College began to assert some control over the contest. A layup from
Lilly Pepper tied the game at 29-29 and
Carly Cameron had an and-one to give IC the lead at 32-29. By halftime, the lead was five at 39-34.
The Panthers had one last push in them, opening the third quarter on a 10-4 run to take a 44-43 lead on a jumper from Hannah Krukewitt. On the other end,
Junie Zirkelbach answered back with a layup to give the Lady Blues the lead for good. That began a stretch of play where Illinois College would open up a double-digit lead towards the end of the quarter on a
Grace Yaunches triple before two free throws from Greenville made it 61-53 heading into the last 10 minutes.
The fourth quarter turned into a shootout, but Illinois College did enough to stay out in front. Each team shot 11-of-18 from the field in the quarter and knocked down three treys. During the wild back-and-forth, the closest Greenville would get would be three points on a Haven Robertson jumper, making it 68-65 with 6:42 remaining. On the other end,
Madison Schoenfeld grabbed an offensive rebound and converted a three-point play to open the lead up again for the Lady Blues. The cushion eventually extended all the way to 13 points with under two minutes to play before a late surge saw the Panthers close the gap slightly.
Megan Price and
Krista Bass led the Lady Blues in scoring with 19 points apiece. Yaunches added 14 and Zirkelbach chipped in 11 off the bench.
Illinois College heads into a four-team tournament next weekend hosted by Webster University in Webster Groves, Mo. First up is a semifinal against Edgewood College at 6 p.m. on Nov. 15. The following day, IC will face either Webster or the University of the Ozarks.
