Zora Skrabalova matched her career high with 14 points, set a Redbird Arena record for an Illinois State player with 6 blocked shots and added a team-high 12 rebounds to lead a balanced Illinois State team past Illinois-Chicago 74-64 Sunday in Redbird Arena.
In the first half, team scoring leader Katie Donovan scored 17 of her team-high 18 points for Illinois State, now 2-3, while Taren OBrien scored all 15 of her points after halftime. Erin Keeney added 10 points and 7 rebounds, while Jaci McCormack keyed a second-half surge for the Redbirds with 8 points, 6 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists in the games final 20 minutes.
The Flames, 4-3, were led by Chrissy Dizons 26 points and 6 assists backed by 11 points and a Redbird Arena record 23 rebounds by Dejeanette Flournoy, a junior-college transfer who began her college career at Illinois State.
Flournoys record eclipsed an 11-year-old mark held by Caryn Brune of Illinois State, who had 21 in a game against Western Illinois March 4, 1992. Skrabalova topped Brunes ISU player record 5 blocks set in 1991. ISU had 9 blocks as a team, which broke the ISU team arena record of 7 in 1995 against Northern Iowa.
The blocks were indicative of the relentless Redbird defense, which limited UIC to just 29.5 percent from the field OBrien had just 2 steals for the game, but six times she deflected passes or knocked the ball out of the hands of Flames players under the UIC bucket, preventing easy layups.
A three-point bucket by Chris Kutschinski--the first of her college career--put the Redbirds ahead 33-28 at halftime. Three-pointers by OBrien and Keeney spurred a 7-2 second-half start to put the Birds ahead 40-30, but UIC rallied with a 12-0 run to take a 42-40 lead on Chastity Quinns layup with 14:59 left.
Layups by Michelle Harakas and OBrien put ISU back on top, but the Flames kept chasing and retook the lead 49-48 on Gina Hugliers trey with 9:47 left. ISU responded in just over two minutes with a jumper by Skrabalova, a layup by Keeney, a three-pointer by McCormack, a pull-up jumper by McCormack and two free throws by Skrabalova for an 11-0 run and a 59-48 lead heading into the final 7:30. UIC never got closer than seven after that..
UIC coach Lisa Ryckbosch thought one key for ISU was scoring 41 second half points while getting just one from Donovan, who came into the game averaging 20.5 and was a defensive focus for UIC after scoring 17 in the first half.
We face-guarded Donovan in the second half, but they had other players step up, said Ryckbosch, whose team beat ISU 72-55 last year and downed Valley member Northern Iowa 70-61 last week. This is just a much better (ISU) team than a year ago. Confidence is a funny thing. They feel like its okay to take open shots when they get them. All their kids just look more confident than a year ago ... I think they will be extremely competitive in their conference this year.
Redbird coach Robin Pingeton thought her teams effort in practice started paying off.
Wed get open looks (in previous games) and the shots werent falling, said Pingeton. "But everyone of our players came in every single day to take extra shooting. That says a lot about them and a lot about how hard they want to compete. Its great to see their efforts rewarded. It was a great team effort. I could go down the list (of players) and talk about what everyone contributed today.
The Redbirds play their next game at 6:05 p.m. Tuesday at IUPUI.
