SPRINGFIELD, IL – University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) women's basketball player Jasmine Sangster dropped 26 points. The 5-foot-6 sophomore guard from Round Lake, IL sank two free throws with four seconds remaining, en route to a 59-58 UIS victory over William Jewell College during Saturday's Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) matchup.
 
"We found a way to win it," UIS coach Mark Kost said. "In the past, we found ways to lose games. Our girls fought hard. Maybe that will break the ice for us and we can get on a run for the end of the season."
 
Sangster's 26 points was a game high. She converted 9-of-13 (69.2 percent) shots from the field.
 
"Jasmine had one heck of a ball game for us. She did a great job for us making some buckets."
 
Katelyn Rosner blocked three shots, boosting her total to 35 on the season. The 6-foot-2 sophomore center from Chicago, IL surpassed the UIS Division II single-season record.
 
Tehya Fortune provided 14 points for the Prairie Stars (11-11, 5-9).
 
"Tehya took the ball to the basket She got to the free-throw line and is starting to play like the player she is. Maybe we can get that going down the stretch."
 
Shelbi Patterson recorded 10 points and Rosner scored three points. Destiny Ramsey, Lanie Hicks and Brianna Mefford each rounded out the UIS scoring effort with two points apiece.
 
UIS received distributed contributions in the post. Ramsey was limited to just 22 minutes due to foul trouble, but the Prairie Stars still maintained an 11-point lead at halftime.
 
"Our posts were in foul trouble the whole game, but we had some girls come in off the bench and give us some quality minutes to keep us in the lead in the first half."
 
Kayla Harrell led William Jewell (11-10, 8-6) with 16 points. Natalie Closser tallied 13 points and three steals. Lindsey McCoy turned in 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sydney Offield also collected nine rebounds.
 
The Prairie Stars knocked down 19-of-50 (38 percent) shots from the field and 8-of-21 (38.1 percent) attempts from 3-point range. William Jewell made 23-of-68 (33.8 percent) shots from the floor and just 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) attempts from behind the arc.
 
UIS converted 13-of-18 (72.2 percent) shot from the free-throw line while William Jewell sank 10-of-16 (62.5 percent) attempts from the charity stripe.
 
The Prairie Stars committed 16 turnovers as the Cardinals finished with a 12-11 advantage in points off turnovers. William Jewell turned the ball over 11 times. Both teams scored four fast-break points.
 
The Cardinals outrebounded the Prairie Stars 45-32. William Jewell pulled in 18 offensive rebounds and outscored UIS 12-3 on second-chance points.
 
UIS opened up with an 8-2 lead. The Cardinals narrowed the deficit to as small as two points before the Prairie Stars concluded the first quarter with a 17-10 lead.
 
UIS held a 33-18 lead with 3 minutes, 11 seconds left in the second quarter. The Cardinals scored two baskets before halftime to trim the deficit to 33-22.
 
William Jewell converted 9-of-36 (25 percent) shots from the floor in the first half, but got its offense going in the second half, knocking down 14-of-32 (43.8 percent) attempts from the field in the second half.
 
The Cardinals outscored UIS 15-13 in the third quarter. UIS went up by 11 as Patterson hit a jumper with under eight minutes remaining. William Jewell came charging back with a 9-0 run, which included five points from Katie Finn. The Prairie Stars held a 48-46 advantage with 5:32 remaining but extended their lead to 52-46 with 4:08 to go. William Jewell scored on the next three possessions to knot the game at 52-all.
 
Patterson was fouled and awarded two free throws. She made her first but missed her second. However, Rosner gathered the offensive rebound and was immediately fouled. She split her pair of free throws. Harrell followed up with a jumper to even the game at 54-all.
 
Sangster had 21 points in the first 38 and a half minutes of the contest and contributed several of her points as a result of the Horns offense. UIS inbounded the ball underneath the basket, setup Sangster for an open 3-pointer and Sangster drained it.
 
"Jasmine does a good job of changing speeds, coming off the ball screen and making something happen. That's the one thing about Jasmine. She does a good job of making something happen and you need players who can do that. We had an out-of-bounds play under the basket. We ran it for Jasmine and got her open for a 3-pointer right in front of our bench, which was a big shot."
 
Harrell narrowed the deficit to 57-56 with 47 seconds remaining. After the Cardinals regained possession, Finn hit a go-ahead basket with 10 seconds remaining.
 
After a timeout, UIS was able to advance its inbounds. As Sangster made a drive to the basket, Harrell knocked the ball loose. Both Sangster and Harrell dove after the loose ball, but Sangster got to the ball first and Harrell was called for a loose ball foul. Sangster entered the contest with an 81.4 free-throw percentage on the season. She only went to the line twice in the game, but those two attempts were with four seconds left in the game and Sangster made both to give UIS a 59-58 lead.
 
William Jewell advanced the ball after a timeout. After the inbound, the Cardinals had attempted to give Finn an open look from the perimeter. Finn entered the contest with a team-high 38.7 3-point field-goal percentage for the season. UIS sent two defenders Finn's direction when she got the ball to cut off any shot opportunity. Finn passed the ball to Harrell and Harrell had less than a second to get a shot off.  The Cardinals came up empty and UIS snapped its seven-game losing streak.
 
"We played with heart on Thursday and we played with heart [on Saturday] and when you do that, good things happen."
 
With four games left in the GLVC season, UIS is tied for 10th in the GLVC Point Rating System with a 2.61 rating. The Prairie Stars are scheduled for two conference games next week. UIS welcomes Quincy University (8-16, 4-11) on Thursday at 5:30 p.m in TRAC. The Prairie Stars close out the week with a road matchup against the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) (16-5, 10-4) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in St. Louis, MO.