By WILL THOMAS, Western Courier Staff Writer
Saint Paul, Minn. – Western Illinois women’s basketball team snapped their five-game losing streak this past Saturday. Western Illinois got the lead early and did not look back as they beat the St. Thomas Tommies 82-67.
The contest was a close one for the first three and half minutes. Jade Hill put the Tommies up 6-5 with 6:28 left with a layup. After that, it was all WIU. The Leathernecks would go on a 12-0 run to open a 17-6 lead. The Tommies would claw back into the game as Western took a 21-16 lead after the opening frame.
The second quarter is when the offense started to shine. The leathernecks would get up by 12 with 5:11 left as Danni Nichols would get a layup to go. The Leathernecks would keep their foot on the gas pedal taking a 45-36 lead into the halftime break.
In the second half, the offense would still stay the course shooting 15-28 from the field and outscoring the Tommies 22-10 in points in the paint. The difference between the two halves was the defense. The Leathernecks would cause seven turnovers, holding the Tommies to 11-28 shooting from the field.
Nichols led the way in the scoring column tallying 24 points. She also had six rebounds and three assists. Western had two other starters in double digits. Elizabeth Lutz had 13 and Jada Thorpe contributed 14. Mallory McDermott was the top bench scorer of the night dropping 10 points.
The Leathernecks improve to 12-7 on the season 3-5 in Conference play. The Leathernecks take on Kansas City on Monday before they come back to Western Hall on Thursday to play Oral Roberts.
