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Western Illinois University Athletics

MAL
Matthew Brooks
75
Western Ill. WIU 0-2,0-0 Summit League
88
Winner Southern Ind. USI 2-0,0-0 OVC
Western Ill. WIU
0-2,0-0 Summit League
75
Final
88
Southern Ind. USI
2-0,0-0 OVC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Western Ill. WIU 9 21 20 25 75
Southern Ind. USI 21 20 20 27 88

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

Thorpe Makes 14 Free Throws in Loss

Feat hasn’t been done since 2017; Western hosts Eastern Illinois on Monday.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Leatherneck women's basketball played Friday night (Nov. 11), falling 88-75 in a road contest against the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles. With the loss, Western moves to 0-2 on the season with a matchup against cross-state opponent Eastern Illinois looming on Monday (Nov. 14).
 
"With it being USI's first Division-I game, I knew they would be fired up and come out ready for a fight which they did. I'm impressed with them – they're a good, physical team, play really hard and they're well rounded," head coach JD Gravina said. "When you get behind by double-digits in the first quarter, that's killer. I do think we did a good job to keep fighting, we didn't just completely give up. We just have to be able to match the opponent's physicality a little bit better."
 
The Screaming Eagles came out firing early, opening the game on a 10-2 run, but Western found opportunities to fight back. Elizabeth Lutz came up with a big and-one, and Anna Deets added a three pointer that cut the USI lead to seven. Southern Indiana then went on a 6-1 run to finish the first period of play and held a 21-9 advantage after one.
 
After USI extended the lead to as much as 19 with 6:53 to go in the second quarter, the Leatherneck offense found a groove and went on a 15-5 run that saw five different players score while hitting a combined 2-3 from deep. After Alissa Dins finished a last-second layup WIU went into the halftime break trailing 30-41.
 
Free throws played a huge role down the stretch of this one, as Western finished the third quarter 10-10 at the line but still trailed. The Leathernecks opened the final period of play on a 12-6 run that included an exclamation point courtesy of Carla Flores, who nailed a shot from deep to cut the Screaming Eagle lead to just five points with 6:47 remaining in the game. After going 8-8 in the third quarter alone from the free throw line, Jada Thorpe continued to attack the basket and draw fouls, eventually sinking a free throw that brought Western's deficit to just four points (66-70) with 6:12 remaining in the game.

"Coaching wisdom tells you that can be hard to sustain a comeback because of how much energy it takes, and I think that's what happened tonight," Coach Gravina said. "At that point you have no room for error – you need everything to go right. Next thing you know they hit a couple shots and it's back to double-figures."
  
Southern Indiana then countered with a 14-2 run down the stretch, putting it out of reach as the game went final at 88-75 in favor of the Screaming Eagles.

Thorpe led all Leatherneck scorers with 19 points on 14-15 shooting from the free throw line, also nabbing four steals and making 1-2 from deep in a team-leading 34 minutes of action. Elizabeth Lutz finished with 13 points and four steals while Alissa Dins followed up her career game with nine points, seven rebounds and one block in a career-high 28 minutes of action. Mallory McDermott scored seven and swiped a career-high three steals while Anna Deets paired 10 points with four rebounds off the WIU bench. Carla Flores made both of her three-point attempts to finish with six points and one block in 18 minutes.
 
"It was nice to see Carla get more comfortable. She's still just a few weeks out of being cleared and it's been a slow process to get back into it physically and mentally. We saw progress against Minnesota and again tonight," Gravina said. "Allie Meadows came in and played really hard too, so it helped us a with managing their press and getting the ball moving up the court while also setting the tone defensively."
 
As a team, Western Illinois shot 22-52 (42.3%) from the line, hitting 7-14 (50%) from deep and 24-31 (77.4%) at the line. The team grabbed 28 rebounds and combined to dish out 12 assists while the bench once again came up big with 24 points. The defensive effort resulted in 14 steals and 23 Screaming Eagle turnovers while Western's ability to score down low resulted in a 30-26 advantage in points in the paint.
 
Jada Thorpe's performance at the free throw line was one for the record book, setting a new career-best mark for the 5-9 junior; her previous career-high was nine, scored against SIUE last season. Her 14 free throw makes also ranks among the best in program history, tying for the sixth-most free throws made in a single game, while the last time a player hit 14 free throws in a game was Taylor Higginbotham against SEMO on Dec. 5, 2017.
 
"At some point I told everyone 'you've just got to play with nothing to lose' and almost get a little angry, and Jada did that," Coach Gravina said. "She attacked the basket really well, put a lot of pressure on the defense… In a game like this where they were getting up and really pressuring and trying to be physical, it's a good play to get to the basket and try to draw some contact."
 
Western Illinois is back in action this coming Monday (Nov. 14), hosting Eastern Illinois at Western Hall. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. and tickets can be purchased by clicking this link.
 
 
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