The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) women's basketball team came up short with a 72-61 loss during Saturday's grudge match with Purdue University Northwest at TRAC.
"We weren't very good [on Saturday]," UIS coach
Mark Kost said. "We're struggling with injury situations where we are playing some different lineups. We've got some people who have played well for us in the past that aren't playing very well right now. We need to get that straightened out as a coaching staff."
The Pride (2-3) jumped out to 20-9 lead after one quarter. UIS (1-3) managed to trim the lead to four points as Purdue Northwest led 30-26 with 1 minute, 42 seconds left in the half. The Pride led the Prairie Stars 36-28 at halftime and 58-44 after three quarters. UIS outscored Purdue Northwest 17-14 in the fourth quarter.
Jasmine Sangster turned in a team-high 15 points for the Prairie Stars (1-3).
Tehya Fortune contributed 12 points, four steals and a team-high six rebounds. The 5-foot-7 junior guard from Chicago is tied for eighth among UIS Division II career leaders with 76 steals.
Lauren Ladowski finished with nine points,
Gabrielle Sanders posted six points,
Ellie Mitchell and
Airiana Smith notched five points apiece and
Chasitee Shroyer produced three points.
Brianna Mefford,
Myka Roth and
Erin Bolskar each rounded out the UIS scoring effort with two points apiece.
Molly DeValkendere led the Pride with 17 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Kelli Damman scored 12 points, Shae Rhonehouse dropped 10 points and Danielle Nennig recorded 10 points and three steals. Bayley Goodman also dished out five assists.
Purdue Northwest outrebounded UIS by a 47-35 margin.
The Pride converted 25-of-58 (43.1 percent) shots from the field and 10-of-29 (34.5 percent) attempts from 3-point range. UIS hit 20-of-65 (30.8 percent) attempts from the floor and 5-of-20 (25 percent) shots from the perimeter.
Purdue Northwest sank 12-of-14 (85.7 percent) shots from the free-throw line while UIS made 16-of-24 (66.7 percent) attempts from the charity stripe.
"We need to make a lot more progress as far as the intensity that we are playing with and the way we are playing on the defensive end. We're going to have to reevaluate everything we are doing as a coaching staff, as a team and the personnel we are putting out there every day, but we'll get it done. We have a few days to work on everything and we'll get it going again."
The Prairie Stars outscored the Pride 22-10 off turnovers. Purdue Northwest committed 26 turnovers while UIS turned the ball over 16 times.
UIS continues to make early season adjustments. The Prairie Stars made their season debut at TRAC in Day 16 of the season. As a result of graduating players and injured players, the Prairie Stars have players who are competing in a much larger role from last season
"We had our first three on the road or at a neutral site and played a little better than we play [on Saturday]. We just got to get some people going. We've got some people in leadership roles who were kind of in the background last year. They're the ones at the top of the scouting report and we'll get them there. We need to get them confidence as a coaching staff, put them into a position to succeed and we'll be alright."
The Prairie Stars open Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) action with two matchups next week in St. Louis. UIS goes head-to-head with Maryville University (2-2) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. The Prairie Stars then battle the University of Missouri-St. Louis (3-3) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
"I've got to stay positive and keep this group positive until we get going again, but we will be ready for Maryville on Thursday. They don't give us a lot of time with these early conference games. If we can get it going and get a win on Thursday, the sun will start shining brighter and we'll feel better about ourselves."
