JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's basketball team showed its resilience yet again, battling back from a nine-point halftime deficit and emerging with a 97-92 overtime win over Lake Forest College on Saturday for the team's third straight win. The Lady Blues boast the longest winning streak in the Midwest Conference and are now 12-11 (8-8 MWC) heading into the team's home finale on Tuesday night.
Outside of a 5-0 start to the game from
Megan Price and
Lilly Pepper, things didn't look like they were going Illinois College's way in the first half. Lake Forest answered that opening shot from the Lady Blues by going on a 9-0 run and grew the lead to 25-17 by the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Foresters took their largest lead at 12 points in the first two minutes of the frame. Later on, an IC comeback brought the Lady Blues to within three at 35-32 before an 8-0 run from Lake Forest helped build the advantage to 43-34 at the break. A
Carly Cameron bucket just before halftime brought the deficit back to single-digits for the home team.
Lake Forest was still on cruise control much of the third quarter and equaled its largest lead at 61-49 on a three-pointer from Meona Feather at the 2:43 mark of the period. From that point on, Illinois College scored the final 11 points of the quarter including a
Megan Price layup just before the buzzer to make it 61-60 heading to the fourth.
The run continued and reached 15-0 on a Cameron layup and two free throws from
Madison Schoenfeld before Lake Forest finally broke its drought. The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle. Kelsey Burton scored to give the Foresters a 78-76 lead in the final minute, but a
Grace Yaunches steal and
Lakeida Nichols layup knotted the score at 78-78 and took the contest to overtime.
Lake Forest led early on in overtime, but foul trouble for the Foresters began to factor in and a
Junie Zirkelbach three-pointer with 2:23 to play in the extra session gave Illinois College a lead it wouldn't relinquish again. Zirkelbach and Yaunches closed out the win with free throws in the final 30 seconds to clinch it.
Cameron ended her night with a double-double of 20 points and 12 rebounds. Zirkelbach also scored 20, a career high. Price scored 15 for IC and Yaunches added 11.
Illinois College will look to keep its postseason aspirations alive on Tuesday night, hosting Knox College (15-8, 10-6 MWC) at 7:30 p.m. The Lady Blues need to win out and have the Prairie Fire drop their final two in order to force a tie between the two teams that could potentially decide the No. 4 seed in the MWC Tournament.
