Lewis ties career high, Leathernecks fall 74-53 to Jackrabbits

MACOMB, Ill.- Junior Erica Lewis tied a career-high 17 points as the Western Illinois women's basketball team fell to South Dakota State, 74-53, Saturday afternoon.

“I feel confident in the games to come for us this season,” said Lewis. “We played hard tonight and played really well as a team.”

The Jackrabbits (3-4, 1-0 Summit League) started the game on a 15-4 run before the Leathernecks (2-5, 0-1 Summit League) cut the deficit to nine on a Anne Borgertpoepping layup with 12:08 on the clock. Back-to-back free throws by Lewis made the score 17-13 at the 8:48 mark and got Western within four points, but a 10-2 run by the Jackrabbits gave them a 27-15 advantage with 4:43 left to play in the half. With 32 seconds left in the half, an Ashley Lord jump shot cut the South Dakota State lead to five before Jill Young hit a layup as time expired to give the Jackrabbits a 31-24 lead heading into the locker room.

“We did a lot of positive things out on the court tonight,” said Western Illinois head coach Leslie Crane. “We were close at the half but we just didn't have enough to carry that momentum through the second half.”

The Jackrabbits continued to be aggressive offensively in the second half, taking their largest lead of the game (74-48) with 2:08 left in the game before Lunden Roberts hit her second three-point basket of the game to cut the South Dakota State lead to 23. Jackie Rieger connected on two free throws with 24 seconds left in the game to make the final score 74-53 in favor of the defending conference champions.

Western forced 24 Jackrabbit turnovers and recorded 11 steals in the contest. However, the Leathernecks committed 24 turnovers after having a season low in their last outing.

“We were able to force a lot of turnovers which was good but we also committed a lot of our own turnovers,” said Crane. “I thought we did a good job of limiting their possessions tonight but they're a good shooting team so they made the most of those chances.”

The Leathernecks took two more shots than South Dakota State in the contest (53-51), but only shot 32.1 percent from the floor compared to the Jackrabbits 51 percent. The Jackrabbits were also able to score 30 points in the paint and as well as scoring 31 points off of Western's turnovers.

“We had some opportunities and chances tonight,” said Crane. “Right now we've got a lot of young kids on the bench and I think if we had a little more experience off the bench, we might have been able to stay closer.”

Lewis led the Western offense with a game-high 17 points and seven rebounds. Jordon O'Brien added nine points and Lord contributed eight points. Borgertpoepping added six points, five rebounds and four steals in the contest.

“We've got to continue rebounding well and we need to get out quicker on defense,” said Crane. “We've been teaching our kids to limit the other team's possessions and work hard on defense. We just got away from it a little bit in the second half tonight.”

The Leathernecks continue Summit League play when they host North Dakota State on Monday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

#33 Anne Borgertpoepping: G; 5' 7"; Junior

#50 Ashley Lord: C; 6' 4"; Senior

#5 Erica Lewis: G/F; 5' 8"; Junior

#42 Jackie Rieger: F; 6' 0"; Redshirt

#23 Lunden Roberts: G; 5' 8"; Redshirt

Players Mentioned

#33 Anne Borgertpoepping
: 5' 7"; Junior
: G

#50 Ashley Lord
: 6' 4"; Senior
: C

#5 Erica Lewis
: 5' 8"; Junior
: G/F

#42 Jackie Rieger
: 6' 0"; Redshirt
: F

#23 Lunden Roberts
: 5' 8"; Redshirt
: G