The seventh-ranked University of Southern Indiana women's basketball team jumped out to a 15-3 lead en route to a 77-52 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Parkside this evening in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Screaming Eagles, winners of eight consecutive games, improve to 15-3 overall and 8-2 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference while the Lady Rangers fall to 3-11 overall and 3-7 in the GLVC.

After a near six-minute scoring drought, the Eagles extended their lead to 21-3 before the Lady Rangers connected on their second field goal of the game.

Defense got the Eagles off to a fast start as USI limited UWP to just 5-of-20 shooting in the first half. The Eagles forced 19 first-half turnovers as they went into the locker rooms with a 35-16 halftime lead.

"When you only give up 16 points in the first half, five of which came from the free throw line, that tells me that we are getting after it, that we are playing good defense," Head Coach Rick Stein said. "Our communication and our talk were as good as it has been. I really think that in the last few weeks we have really been building on the defensive end that way."

The Eagles shot just 38.9 percent from the floor in the first half, but shot 16 more times than that of the Lady Rangers.

USI extended its lead to 23 points with, to open the second period, before UWP went on an 11-2 run to cut the Eagle lead to 14 points (41-27). The Eagles answered UWP's run with a 13-2 run of their own, extending their lead to 54-29 with 13:22 to go in the contest.

"I thought Parkside played good, they really made some big-time runs," Stein explained. "We weathered the storm, we kept guarding out there, and we kept pushing the ball."

USI shot 53.3 percent (16-of-30) from the floor while UWP shot 47.8 percent (11-of-23) from the floor in the second stanza. For the game the Eagles held the Lady Rangers to just 37.2 percent from the floor and out-rebounded UWP 38-33.

Leading the way for the Eagles was sophomore forward Jessica Stuckman (Quincy, Illinois) and junior forward/center Africa Sherrod (Ft. Lauderdale, Florida). Stuckman had a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds while Sherrod followed with 19 points and three rebounds.

Senior guard Jasmine Moore (Chicago, Illinois) kept the Lady Rangers off balance as she provided the outside scoring threat for the Eagles. Moore finished with 12 points and was 2-of-3 from behind the arc.

"We have to have an inside-outside game," Stein explained. "We made a couple of threes early in the game and it opened up the inside scoring for us a little bit."

The Eagles will wrap up their two-game road trip Saturday as they travel to Rensselaer, Indiana to take on Saint Joseph's College in a 1:00 p.m. tip-off. USI will return home a week from tonight as they host third-ranked Northern Kentucky University.