MACOMB, Ill. - The Western Illinois women's basketball team (2-7, 1-0) defeated North Dakota State (5-2, 0-1) in The Summit League opener, 77-65 on Saturday (Jan. 2).
The conference opening victory marked the first time since the 2017-18 season and also marked the 150th career victory for head coach JD Gravina at Western Illinois, becoming the second only coach to achieve the mark.
"I'm really proud of how our kids prepared and played today." said Gravina "I've felt like we have improved the last few weeks and I'm really happy it paid off for our players. Especially against a good team like NDSU. That's a team coming off a win at Kansas, who has beat Green Bay twice, and took it to Northern Iowa. So I feel like that's definitely a quality win. It should be a dogfight tomorrow."
A balanced attack out of gates behind shooting 68.8 (11-16) percent put Western ahead 29-17 at the end of the first quarter as four Leathernecks ended in double figures - Evan Zars (16), Grace Gilmore (14), Danni Nichols (13), and Elizabeth Lutz (12).
In the next frame, it was the Western defense that shined as it held the Bison scoreless for the first five minutes and didn't surrender a field goal until 3:22. Three-pointers from Mallory McDermott and Nichols led an 11-2 run for a 46-30 lead at the half.
A 10-2 run out of half maintained the host advantage and gave WIU it's largest lead of the afternoon, 65-37. The Leathernecks scored 10 of its 19 points in the quarter from the free-throw line as they ended 24-30 for the game.
North Dakota State chipped away late and made it a 10 point game (69-59) at the 4:44 mark in the fourth quarter, but a successful and-one from Zars kept the visitors out of reach.
Game two against NDSU is set for 1 p.m. on Sunday (Jan. 3).
