LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Western Illinois women's basketball team (1-6) rolled past Bellarmine (0-3) 79-57 on Saturday (Dec. 19) afternoon for the first victory of the season.
"It was nice to build some confidence and get a road win," head coach JD Gravina said. "You could see us get more comfortable offensively as the game went on. We also made a commitment to offensive rebounding and that helped carry us when our shots weren't falling early."
Evan Zars scored the first basket at 8:32 in the first quarter and set the tone for the Leatherneck offense. She ended with a team-high 16 points and had nine boards to help Western outscore Bellarmine 34-18 in the paint.
Danni Nichols collected her first double-double (15 points and 10 rebounds) of the season while Sam Pryor nailed four three-pointers for 12 points. Grace Gilmore had six points and notched a career-high eight assists and nine rebounds.
After the first bucket by Zars, the Leathernecks encountered a nearly four-minute scoring drought, and Bellarmine went on a 7-0 run to force a timeout. Anna Deets and Pryor erased the opponent's push and nailed back-to-back threes to give WIU its first lead (14-12) and 10-0 run to close the first quarter up 16-12.
A Nichols steal and score out of the gates started the second frame, and Western held the Knights scoreless for the first three minutes of the quarter. The host responded with its own run (7-0) and brought it to a three-point game (24-21) at the media timeout, but that was the closest the Knights got for the rest of the afternoon.
WIU found its offense stride out of the break again and surged into halftime, holding a 38-25 advantage while grabbing down 10 offensive boards and owning the rebounding edge 29-18.
Elizabeth Lutz generated another quick start for the Leathernecks to open the third quarter with a layup for a 7-0 run to give Western a 20 point lead, 45-25, and put the inaugural meeting out of reach.
Western Illinois heads to its second round of Big Ten action against Iowa on Tuesday (Dec. 22) for a 1 p.m. tip-off and then concludes non-league play at home against Chicago State on Wednesday (Dec. 30).
