EUREKA, IL – The Principia Women's Basketball team took a cold trip to Eureka College on Saturday afternoon to play against the Red Devils. The Panthers came in looking to hold on to second place in the SLIAC standings with a win, but needed to shake off their bad memories from a tough loss last season in Eureka's gym.
After a back-and-forth start, the Panthers went on an 8-0 run midway through the first quarter to take a 13-4 lead. Eureka made a run of its own to end the first to cut the Panther lead to 19-14. Principia let Eureka hang around in the second quarter which came back to bite them by halftime. After a
Taylor Brown three with 2:18 remaining put the Panthers ahead by 9, some missed opportunities for Principia on offense gave the Red Devils some momentum. Eureka would close the half on a 7-0 run giving the Panthers a slim 29-27 lead at the break.
The third quarter started with Eureka still in rhythm and the Panthers scrambling for answers. Down for the first time in the game just over a minute into the third, the Panthers took a timeout which gave Coach Ro some time to remind the women who they were on both ends of the floor and to trust each other. Coming out of the timeout, the Panthers immediately went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. Winning the third quarter 23-12 and extending the lead to 13 points allowed breathing room for the Panthers to look to play free and extend their lead in the fourth.
The Red Devils began to employ a press in the fourth to try to bring some energy and change the speed of the game. The Panthers had other ideas and were not going to allow a press change the speed of their game. Principia continued to get great looks inside, and then when those lanes were closed, they found open jump shooters who cashed in. As foul trouble began to pile up for the starters, the Panthers bench came in and filled holes on offense and defense. All 14 active players saw time in the game for Principia, with 10 of those players finding the score column. In the end, the Panthers came away with a comfortable 74-54 victory.
Principia was led once again by the sophomore trio of
Taylor Brown with 19 points and 5 rebounds,
Trinniti Matthews with 16 points and 9 rebounds, and
Ariana Williams with 13 points and 2 rebounds. Senior captain
Alana Hinson chipped in 8 points and 6 rebounds, while
Elyssa White added 6 points and a team-high 11 rebounds as the freshman continues to make a huge difference in many areas of the game.
Coach Ro said afterwards: "Each road game in this conference is always tough, no matter the opponent. The women on this team really turned up the defense and hit the boards in the second half to earn this win. We are grateful to end winter break on a four-game winning streak, and now we get back to class this coming week while looking forward to these last 8 conference games."
Up Next: The Panthers will road trip south for two away games on Thursday at MUW and on Saturday at Lyon. This will be team's first time playing on each of these new conference foe's campuses, so it will be a good test for the Principia women.
