MACOMB, Ill. - Sam Pryor seems to have the habit of hitting clutch shots against the North Dakota State Bison (6-15, 3-6) in the 2019-20 campaign.
"I'm really proud of our bounce back after a poor performance Thursday, " head coach JD Gravina said. "This team is really resilient and will fight so hard. That's a better win then it looks on paper. NDSU is really playing well. We hit some huge shots and just battled the entire game. I think we fed off the crowds energy and it was huge to have that support."
The redshirt-junior drilled the dagger three-pointer that erupted the Western Hall crowd en route to a career-high 16 points at 1:06 in the fourth quarter that earned the Western Illinois women's basketball team (12-11, 6-4) an 86-79 victory on Saturday (Feb. 1) night.
Momentum in a tight fourth quarter shifted in Western's way as Olivia Kaufmann hit a layup to make it 69-68 at 6:17. After joining the 1,000 point club in her senior campaign, she has continued to move up the all-time scoring list. She passed Laura Jensen (1985-88) and Vicki Adelman (1992-95) for 14th all-time with 1,129 points.
Multiple runs from the Bison and Leathernecks highlighted the first two quarters that featured 13 lead changes, and six times both sides were tied, including the end of each frame, 20-20, and 42-42.
Outside of Kaufmann and Pryor, three other Leathernecks ended in double figures. Danni Nichols threw in 12 with Evan Zars (11) and Grace Gilmore (10) following just behind. The last time five players finishing in double-digits was against Indiana State (Nov. 14).
Western Illinois has a quick turnaround with a road trip to Purdue Fort Wayne Tuesday (Feb. 4) night.
