The University of Illinois Springfield women’s basketball team rebounded from a humiliating defeat Thursday with a 63-52 win against William Jewell at The Recreation and Athletic Center on Saturday.
The victory snapped a three-game
losing streak and earned the Prairie Stars their first Great Lakes
Valley Conference win. They are 6-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference.
UIS found the win column with good ball movement and solid defense.
“We
played as a team,” UIS senior forward Ashley McHenry said. “We played
for each other rather than playing for ourselves. We moved the ball a
lot. Nobody was selfish today. Everybody moved their feet. We helped on
defense.”
UIS fell behind 12-5 but rallied to a
27-24 halftime lead. The Stars started pulling away from the Cardinals
in the third quarter. They used a 12-2 run to go ahead 51-41 with 6
minutes 52 seconds left in the fourth. UIS remained in control the rest
of the way.
It was a much needed bounce-back win
for the Stars after shooting 18.2 percent from the field in the first
half of a 72-46 loss to Rockhurst on Thursday.
“I
am proud as I can be of that group after what we went through Thursday
night,” UIS coach Mark Kost said. “To come back 36 hours and perform the
way we performed after laying an egg says something about their
character.
“The defense was much better. We were focused and paid attention to detail.”
McHenry
led all players with 18 points. She also had five of the team’s 16
assists. Sophomore guard Shelbi Patterson scored 14 points. Junior
forward Chelsea Cross had 11 rebounds.
