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Western Illinois University Athletics

WBB_IUPUI_FP
WIU Visual Productions Center
62
IUPUI IUPUI 9-12 (4-4)
73
Winner Western Illinois WIU 13-8 (5-3)
IUPUI IUPUI
9-12 (4-4)
62
Final
73
Western Illinois WIU
13-8 (5-3)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
IUPUI IUPUI 30 32 62
Western Illinois WIU 36 37 73

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Leathernecks Notch Fifth League Victory with 73-62 Decision Over IUPUI

Western Illinois collects second victory against Jaguars under JD Gravina Thursday (Jan. 29) night inside Western Hall

MACOMB, Ill. - The current roster of the Western Illinois women's basketball program had never defeated IUPUI until Thursday (Jan. 29) evening. A double-double from Ashley Luke led the way as the Leathernecks knocked off IUPUI by a final score of 73-62. Western Illinois finishes the first half of Summit League play at 5-3 (13-8 overall), while IUPUI falls to 4-4 in the league (9-12).

Luke, who collected her 12th double-double of the season, paced all scorers with 23 points while recording a team-high 10 rebounds. The Oak Creek, Wisconsin, native was joined by three Leathernecks in double-figures, as Sophie Reichelt, Michelle Maher, and Tori Niemann all tallied 11 points each for the Purple and Gold.

Western stormed out of the gates as the team used a 21-3 run over 9:09 to help build a 28-10 lead on the visiting Jaguars. During the run, Luke recorded 10 points, extending her streak of consecutive games in double figures to 58. The Leathernecks were 9-of-13 from the field during the run while a stingy defense held IUPUI to 1-of-15 field goal shooting. 

The 18-point lead couldn't be sustained, as IUPUI, who had claimed the previous five meetings between the two schools, countered with an 11-0 run of its own to trim the Leatherneck lead to six. The two teams would trade baskets down the closing minutes of the first half, and Western would hold a 36-30 lead heading into halftime.

"Obviously, we had about the best first ten minutes that we've had and you can tell how much our players were fired up for this game. knew how important it was and got off to that big lead which really helped," said Gravina. "Of course, I was really disappointed with that second ten minutes. It was the complete opposite. They had an edge, they started hitting the offensive glass, we were not boxing out, we lost our aggressiveness of offense and defense. We weren't flying around getting deflections like we were early in the game. That was the the message at halftime, it wasn't a lot of x's and o's stuff. In the second they came out and made that run and we really buckled down."

Western Illinois came out hot to start the second half, as the Leathernecks used a 13-2 run over the opening 3:54 to build the lead back up to 17. During the second half, IUPUI tried to fight back into the game, as it cut the lead to single digits on five different occasions. Each time the Leathernecks had an answer, and the team closed the game a perfect 6-of-6 from the charity stripe to finish off the victory.

"I thought we had a good intensity about us the entire second half. When we play 20 minutes like that we can be a pretty good team. Eighteen offensive rebounds for them is still too many, but they're a really good offensive rebounding team as well and I was proud of the way our defense held them to 29 percent shooting," added Gravina.

Western, who never trailed in the game, shot 51.1% from the field (24-47), while limiting the Jaguars to 29.9% (20-67) for the game. 

The Leathernecks close out a four-game homestand on Sunday (Jan. 31), as Fort Wayne invades Macomb. The Leathernecks will look to sweep the season series with the Mastodons, with tip-off slated for 4:30 p.m. inside Western Hall.
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