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| Katie Bunge |
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – With their backs to the wall, the Lady Miners got exactly what they needed Thursday night.
The Lady Miners routed Southern Illinois Edwardsville 71-51 in a game they had to have to stay in the Great Lakes Valley Conference playoff race. UMR never trailed in the contest as it posted its largest margin of victory ever in the 22-game history of the series.
The win moved the Lady Miners to 16-10 overall and 9-9 in GLVC play as they remained tied with Quincy for fourth place in the GLVC West – with a game looming Saturday on the Lady Hawks’ home floor – and also matched Indianapolis’ win earlier in the night over Bellarmine as UMR is trying to fend off the Greyhounds for one of the last playoff spots.
UMR had one of its most impressive starts to a game this season, jumping out to a 23-7 lead just past the midway point of the first half. The Lady Miners made a 11-0 run after the Cougars had tied the game at two to go up by 11 and maintained that double-figure lead for a good portion of the half.
During the 11-0 run, the Lady Miners forced 11 straight missed shots by the Cougars.
SIUE got back-to-back three-pointers from Whitney Sykes to draw to within four at 28-24 by the 3:43 mark, but a basket by Katie Bunge stopped the surge and UMR outscored SIUE 6-2 to finish the half with a 34-26 lead.
UMR regained its double-digit lead on a lay-up by Tamara McCaskill with 16:50 to play in the second half, then was able to keep the lead around the nine-to-11 point mark by answering SIUE’s baskets with points at the other end over the next few minutes.
Jaime Forsberg’s three-pointer with 12:14 left gave UMR a 46-34 lead, then Chism McEntire answered a put-back by Allison Fogle with another three on the next trip to boost the Lady Miner lead to 13; a basket moments later by Nicole Dierking made it a 15-point lead at 51-36.
SIUE drew to with nine when Sykes drained a long three-pointer and converted a three-point play and had a chance to get closer, but Forsberg stole an outlet pass and hit a short jumper with 8:45 on the clock to push the lead back to 11,
At the 5:40 mark, Jennifer Pena gave UMR its biggest lead of the game at 64-47 when she knocked down a three-pointer from the corner. UMR eventually pushed that margin out to the final difference of 20.
The Lady Miners got 15 points from McCaskill, a native of Edwardsville, 14 from Bunge and 12 from Dierking in the win. UMR shot 46 percent from the floor and dominated the boards by a 46-32 margin.
SIUE (19-7, 12-6 GLVC), which entered the game ranked fifth in the NCAA Great Lakes region, was led by Sykes with 21 points. She was the Cougars’ lone double figure scorer as Amber Shelton, the GLVC’s second-leading scorer entering play Thursday was held to a season-low eight points on 2-of-17 shooting.
The Lady Miners will wrap up their GLVC schedule Saturday at Quincy. Game time will be at 4 p.m.
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