BELOIT, Wis. – The Illinois College women's basketball team had a 50-22 edge in rebounds, hauling in 19 of the offensive variety and scoring 19 second-chance points to down Beloit College, 67-49, on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Blues improve to 9-10 (5-7 Midwest Conference) on the year.
Illinois College and Beloit actually tied each other in the second and fourth quarters, but a big edge for the Lady Blues in the first 10 minutes of each half proved to be the difference. IC had a 22-10 lead after the first quarter, going on a quick 8-0 run after the game was knotted at 3-3.
Junie Zirkelbach,
Carly Cameron,
Lilly Pepper and
Megan Price all scored in the run to go up 11-3. The last five points of the quarter all belonged to
Kendra Bass as she put the Lady Blues up by 12.
IC grew the lead all the way to 20 in the second quarter, doubling up Beloit at one point, 40-20. After being on fire at one point, the Lady Blues cooled down in the final four minutes of the quarter, making just a pair of free throws to go to the break with a 42-30 edge.
There was only one point in the second half where Illinois College's lead slipped below 12. Early on in the third quarter, a three-pointer for Beloit momentarily made it a 49-38 game. From there, the Lady Blues ended the quarter on a 10-3 burst to go on top, 59-41. Pepper collected all three buckets in a personal 6-0 run over the last 2:08 of the third to give IC a comfortable margin going into the final quarter of play.
Another field goal for Pepper with exactly eight minutes remaining made it 63-43. Though the Lady Blues would go on an offensive drought the remainder of the game, so did Beloit. The Buccaneers never drew closer than 18 the rest of the way and the final basket for Illinois College went to
Madison Schoenfeld, who led IC with 11 rebounds off the bench.
Price ended with 17 points, tying for game-high honors. Pepper had 13 points and eight rebounds, while
Grace Yaunches added 10.
IC wraps up a four-game road trip with a 7:30 p.m. contest at Knox College on Feb. 5.
