(Lebanon, IL. Feb. 18) – The McKendree University women's basketball dr.opped a Great Lakes Valley Conference road game to the No. 24 Screaming Eagles of the University of Southern Indiana Saturday afternoon in Evansville, IN. The Bearcats fell by a score of 70-48.
The loss dips McKendree to 10-17 overall and 1-16 in the GLVC this season. The Bearcats close out the 2016-17 campaign on Feb. 23 against the University of Illinois-Springfield.
Freshman guard
Jordan Heberg (Romeoville, IL/Plainfield North) scored a team high 16 points after going 6-12 from the field, including a 4-7 clip from three points range. Freshman forward
Shayli Florine (Galesburg, IL/Galesburg) also reached double figures with 12 points, while senior guard
Shannon McGinnis (Niles, Ill./Trinity) hauled in a game high nine rebounds to go with her four points.
Heberg opened the scoring for McKendree after sinking a trey and following with a jumper to give the Bearcats an early 5-4 advantage. The Eagles flipped the script to go on top 10-7, but Florine put McKendree back on top at 11-10 with back to back baskets. Southern Indiana wouldn't be out done as the Eagles moved back ahead with a 6-0 run to take a 17-11 lead, but freshman forward
Megan Jensen (Union, MO/Saint Francis Borgia Regional ) and sophomore forward
Jordan Morton (Olathe, Kan./Olathe South) each tallied baskets in the closing minutes of the first quarter to pull the Bearcats within two at 17-15.
McGinnis and Jensen each converted layups to open the second quarter as the score shifted to 22-19 in favor of Southern Indiana. The Eagles kept their foot on the gas using a 10-4 run to stretch the lead to 10 at 35-25 with 1:35 remaining in the half. Heberg struck from long range with just under a minute to play to pull the Bearcats within seven as McKendree head into the half trailing 35-28.
The Eagles scored the first seven points of the third quarter to open a 14 point spread 6-0 run from the Bearcats that included a trey and a layup from Heberg slashed the lead back to single digits. The teams continued to trade runs as Southern Indiana stretched the lead back to 14 with three straight baskets before netting a layup in the closing seconds of the quarter to take a 52-36 lead into the final ten minutes. The Eagles continued to roll in the fourth as they extended the lead to as many as 23 points as Southern Indiana closed out the game by 22.
