SUNDAY’S SCORES
@Illinois 49, Eastern Illinois 45
@Morehead State 56, Ohio 52
@Eastern Kentucky 71, Chicago State 62
Georgetown 74, @Jacksonville State 63
ILLINOIS 49, EASTERN ILLINOIS 45
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Eastern Illinois women's basketball led by as many as 14 points early in the second half, but was unable to sustain the advantage and saw Illinois rally back and defeat the Panthers, 49-45, Sunday afternoon at the Assembly Hall.
Eastern (1-1) held the lead for 26 minutes of game action total, holding Illinois to 31 percent shooting from the field. But the Illini (2-0) outscored EIU, 33-17, in the second half.
Megan Edwards and Lindsey Kluempers both scored seven points to lead the way for Eastern. Eight of the nine Panthers that saw action scored. Dominique Sims, Ashley Thomas, Edwards and Kluempers each connected on a 3-pointer.
Eastern committed 19 turnovers, 13 coming in the second half. Illinois turned the 19 turnovers into 17 points.
The Panthers led 28-16 at the half and scored the first basket of the second half on an uncontested layup. But Illinois responded with a 24-5 run, grabbing the momentum and getting its crowd into the game.
Jenna Smith (16 points) and Lacey Simpson (14 points, 11 rebounds) accounted for 30 of their team's 49 points, combining for 24 in the second half.
Eastern cut the Illini lead to one when Maggie Kloak scored on a drop step with 2:16 remaining. But Simpson connected on a jumper on the other end of the floor to stretch the lead to 46-43. It remained a one-possession game until Smith hit two free throws with 25 seconds left. The Panthers were forced to foul after coming up empty on its first possession of the final minute.
Illinois scored the first seven points of the game before EIU responded with 10 unanswered. Four different EIU players scored during the surge.
The Panthers closed the first half with a 10-2 run. Galligan scored four straight points to open the spurt and Kluempers also connected on a pair of field goals.
Chantelle Pressley made the most of her four minutes in her collegiate debut. She got the ball on the first EIU possession after she entered the game and drew a foul, making one-of-two at the free throw line. She connected on a jumper from the top of the key on the next trip down the floor.
MOREHEAD STATE 56, OHIO 52
MOREHEAD, Ky. - The Morehead State women's basketball team rallied from a seven-point deficit with less than eight minutes remaining and outscored visiting Ohio 17-6 in the final 7:24 to rally for a 56-52 win over the Bobcats Sunday afternoon at Johnson Arena. In a mistake-filled game, the Eagle defense forced 32 Ohio turnovers, while MSU made only four turnovers after halftime. MSU improved to 1-1, while Ohio fell to 1-1.
Trailing 46-39 with 7:24 left in the game, the Eagles began their comeback. Junior Brittany Pittman got things going with a free throw. A Deja Watson free throw cut the Ohio lead to 46-41. Watson then hit a layup to make it 46-43. Junior Tiffanie Stephens tied the game at 46 with a three-pointer at the 4:05 mark, and sophomore Chynna Bozeman put her team ahead for good with a fall-away trey at 3:08. Tiffany Hamilton connected on two free throws with 45 ticks left, and MSU had its biggest lead of the day at 55-48. The Eagles forced Ohio to miss five field goal attempts in the last 45 seconds to seal the win.
At halftime, the Eagles had 15 turnovers and were shooting only 29 percent, but MSU had also forced Ohio into 19 mistakes and trailed only 27-24. In the second half, MSU's defense pressure forced the Bobcats to shoot only 31 percent, and leading scorer Jenny Poff was held scoreless after leading OU with nine first-half points. The Eagles kept up the intensity, and Ohio committed 13 more floor mistakes in the final 20 minutes.
The first half was notoriously slow, and in fact at the 6:25 mark the score was tied at only 11-11. The Eagles led 9-6 at the 9:29 point of the first half, and their only other lead came when Bozeman hit the three-pointer in the second half at 3:08.
Bozeman led the Eagles with 15 points and five assists. Stephens came off the bench for the second straight game and provided 14 points, including a three-for-five day from three-point land. Hamilton scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Pittman only notched four points, but had 11 total rebounds - nine defensive - and seven blocked shots. She is now averaging 7.5 blocks per game with 15 total rejections in her first two contests.
Lauren Hmiel led Ohio with 18 points and eight boards. She also had eight turnovers. Jennifer Bushby tallied 10 points.
The Eagles shot 33 percent (18-of-55) for the day, while Ohio managed to shoot 37 percent (18-of-49). The Bobcats won the rebound-battle, 44-31.
EASTERN KENTUCKY 71, CHICAGO STATE 61
CHICAGO - Freshman Kayla Drake made 9-of-10 free throw attempts in the final two minutes and scored 33 points in Eastern Kentucky’s 71-61 win at Chicago State on Sunday. The Cougars (1-1) drew within four points with 2:03 left in the game but the Lady Colonels (2-0) made 13-of-15 free throws to escape with the victory.
EKU maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half. Colette Cole’s lay-up with 5:42 left in the game gave Eastern a 12-point advantage, 54-42. Chicago State answered with a 10-2 run. Three-pointers by Courtney Walden and Alyssa Walden capped the run and made it a four-point game with 2:03 to go.
The Lady Colonels put an end to the Cougar run by scoring seven unanswered points from the free throw line to go back on top by 11, 63-52, with just over a minute to play. A technical foul on Alyssa Walden contributed a pair of free throws to the run. CSU would close the gap to five, but Eastern’s shooting from the line secured the victory.
Drake made only 9-of-22 shots from the field, but found the bottom of the net on 14 of 16 free throw attempts. The freshman also had a game-high eight rebounds and six steals. Cole finished with 12 points, going 6-for-6 from the free throw line, and grabbed seven boards. Cherie White contributed 11 points and five rebounds.
The Lady Colonels went 26-of-30 from the free throw line and out-rebounded Chicago State 40-31.
Jasmin Dixon led the Cougars with 15 points. Walden added 13 and Jael Pena finished with 10.
CSU made only 14 of 23 free throw attempts.
With just over a minute before halftime, CSU’s Dixon beat a defender on the perimeter, drove in and put up a six-foot jumper. Cole came over and swatted the ball away. Cherie White converted a lay-up at the other end to keep the Lady Colonels out in front by 11, 28-17.
Dixon averaged 17 points per game last season and scored 23 in Chicago State’s opener against Northwestern, but had only four points at halftime.
The Cougars missed their first nine three-point attempts of the game. Their first trey came from Jael Pena with 35 seconds remaining in the first half. Cole connected on a pair of free throws with six ticks before the half to send Eastern Kentucky to the locker room in front by 10, 30-20.
CSU made just 8-of-29 first half shots for 27.6 percent, including 1-for-10 from behind the arc. Eastern went 12-of-25 from the floor for 48 percent. The Lady Colonels held an 18-16 advantage on the boards at the break.
Chicago State scored five of the first six points of the second half to draw within six, 31-25, but EKU answered with eight straight to build its largest lead, 14 points, with14:04 remaining in the game. Eastern maintained a margin of six or more points until the Cougars’ run that cut the deficit to four late in the game.
GEORGETOWN 74, JACKSONVILLE STATE
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - Krystle Hatton scored 12 points and collected eight rebounds to lead Georgetown University (1-0) a 74-63 win over Jacksonville State on Sunday at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The Hoyas held a six-point lead in the early going on a Kenya Kirkland jumper with 14:54 to play in the first half. JSU tied the game on a Danielle Beneby three-pointer with 12:20 left and Paris Hollingsworth gave JSU its only lead of the contest, 16-14 with 10:39 remaining.
Georgetown tied the game on a Shanice Fuller layup and then regained the lead for good on a Monica McNutt layup with 9:45 to go in the first half.
Tia McBride gave GU its biggest lead of the first half on a jumper with 5:51 left. JSU cut the lead to 30-26 on a pair of Hollingsworth free throws with 3:47 to go.
Rubylee Wright hit a three with 40 seconds left to put Georgetown back up by nine, 35-26. A Beneby free throw with six second left cut the GU lead to 35-27 at the half.
Latia MaGee nailed a three to give the Hoyas its biggest lead of the afternoon to open the second half.
The Gamecocks went on an 8-2 run to get the lead back down to four with 16:18 left in the contest on a Carmine layup.
GU answered with a 16-6 run to take a 59-45 lead on a Jaleesa Butler layup at the 9:56 mark of the second half.
JSU would get the lead down to 65-60 on a Hollingsworth jump shot with 58 seconds left only to see Georgetown go six-for-six from the free throw line to close the game.
Cassi Stuart led the Gamecocks with 13 points followed Charlease Williams with 11. Jolie Efezokahe had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.