Southern Indiana (17-6, 9-6 GLVC): 73
at Saint Joseph's (1-22, 0-15 GLVC): 62
-Box Score:
HTML |
Sortable
RENSSELAER, Ind.—The University of Southern Indiana women's basketball team got a combined 40 points from its bench Saturday as it rallied from an early deficit to defeat Saint Joseph's College, 73-62, in a Great Lakes Valley Conference bout Saturday afternoon.
USI (17-6, 9-6 GLVC) missed its first six shots and trailed 11-2 with 13:36 to play in the first half; but a 12-2 run that featured baskets from five different players put the Screaming Eagles in front, 14-13, for a brief time.
The Eagles went onto score the final six points of the half and outscored the host Pumas, 24-9, in the final 13:23 of the half to build a 26-20 lead at the break.
“You can credit Saint Joseph's for a great start,” USI Head Coach
Rick Stein said. “They played aggressively with a lot of pressure and traps. We struggled to make baskets and they made some shots.”
The Eagles took control of the contest in the second period as it used a 7-0 spurt to build a 39-27 advantage with less than 14 minutes to play.
Junior guard
Aubrey Minix started the run when she sank the first of a school-record tying six second-half three-pointers.
Minix, who was 6-of-7 from three-point range in the second half, drained three shots from behind the arc in an 11-5 push later in the period that put the Eagles up 62-46 with less than five minutes remaining on the clock. She finished with a career-high 20 points and five assists.
“Aubrey was really good all the way around the court today,” Stein said. “I think she had five assists and one or two steals. She really sparked us.
“You can't say enough about our bench, it was a huge difference in the game today,” Stein continued. “
Mariah Nimmo played well;
Libby Ogden was a spark;
Nicole Hazemi played great.”
Hazemi finished with 10 points, four rebounds, and four assists, while Nimmo and Ogden added a combined 10 points to Minix's effort.
Saint Joseph's (1-22, 0-15 GLVC) cut the Eagles' lead to 67-61 with less than two minutes to play, but USI, which was 13-of-16 from the charity stripe, sunk 6-of-7 free throws in the final minute to preserve the victory.
Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field in the second half, with USI connecting on 7-of-10 three-point attempts, but the Eagles held a 40-30 rebounding advantage, a 19-4 edge in second-chance points, and a 24-12 lead in points in the paint.
Sophomore forward/centers
Anna Hackert and
Mary O'Keefe played a big role in USI's dominance of the paint as the two combined for 24 points and 21 rebounds. Hackert finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds, marking her ninth double-double of the season.
Freshman guard Courtney Kvachkoff paced the Pumas with 20 points, going 6-of-10 from three-point range, while sophomore guard Kiki Wilson chipped in 12 points.
The Eagles conclude their regular-season road slate Thursday at 4:45 p.m. (CST) when they travel to Louisville, Kentucky, to take on Bellarmine University.
