GALESBURG, Ill. – The Illinois College women's basketball team came out cold on Wednesday night and couldn't overcome a 21-point halftime deficit despite a red-hot fourth quarter, falling to Knox College by a score of 63-60. The Lady Blues drop to 9-11 (5-8 Midwest Conference).
Lilly Pepper scored on Illinois College's first possession of the game to take a 2-0 lead, but those were IC's only points for more than six minutes, by which time Knox had taken a 10-2 lead.
Carly Cameron scored four points in a row to make it 10-6 but the quarter ended with another offensive drought, allowing the Prairie Fire to go on top, 14-6.
Knox continued to thwart the IC offense in the second quarter. A
Megan Price three-pointer made it 20-11 less than two minutes into the frame. From there, the Lady Blues were held scoreless for more than three minutes, by which time it was 26-11. Following a
Kendra Bass jumper with just under five minutes left until the half, Illinois College was shut out until the buzzer to give the Prairie Fire a 34-13 edge.
Coming out with a purpose, Illinois College scored the first 10 points of the second half, half of which came from
Grace Yaunches. Two buckets from Knox late in the quarter helped them weather the storm, holding onto a 49-33 advantage going to the fourth quarter.
It took more than two minutes of the fourth quarter for Illinois College to score, but once they got rolling Knox could no longer stop them. A 9-0 run for the Lady Blues made it a 55-49 game with 3:29 to play. A three from Yaunches drew IC even closer at 58-53 with 1:13 to go. After the Prairie Fire made one of two at the line, Cameron answered back to trim the deficit to four, 59-55.
IC's last real shot at it came when Yaunches connected on another three to make it 63-60 with less than 30 seconds left. The Lady Blues needed missed foul shots to have a chance, but Jarrelyn McCall hit both after being fouled. A Pepper basket late wasn't enough to come all the way back to tie it.
Yaunches led all scorers on the night with 19 points. Cameron had a double-double with 16 points and 10 boards.
Now done with a four-game road trip, Illinois College comes home to Sherman Gymnasium for a 3 p.m. contest with St. Norbert College on Saturday afternoon.
