Nov. 7, 2006
Box Score
NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State's freshmen trio of Ashleen Bracey, Maggie Krick and Kenyatta Shelton combined for 43 points and 16 rebounds to lead the Redbirds to a dominating 92-59 win over Northwest Missouri State in their final exhibition tune-up at Redbird Arena Tuesday night. ISU will open its regular season slate Saturday (Nov. 11) at Northern Illinois.
All 15 players on the Redbird roster played for the second consecutive game, and 11 of them scored. Krick led all scorers with 16 points; Shelton had 15 points and eight rebounds; Bracey had 12 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting night; sophomore Nicolle Lewis chipped in 11 points, and senior guard Sara Stevenson had 10 points off the bench.
The Bearcats put three players in double figures, led by Mandi Schumacher's 14 points.
The Redbirds out-rebounded Northwest Missouri State, 58-to-41, and held them to just four field goals in the second-half (11.1 percent). Illinois State also had 27 assists to just 12 turnovers in the game.
"I think we learned a lot about our team tonight," said ISU head coach Robin Pingeton. "There was certainly improvement from our first exhibition game to tonight. We wanted to continue to fine-tune some things, and I thought we did that, especially on the defensive end. In the second-half, we challenged our kids to dig deep, get stops and shore up some things with our half-court defense. I thought they responded tremendously."
The Redbirds came out firing, jumping out to a 15-4 lead in the first two minutes of the game. Krick had five points in the stretch, including a three-pointer. But the Bearcats answered with an 18-12 spurt to pull within three, 27-24. Illinois State regained the double-digit advantage (43-32) with 2:35 left in the first-half on a transition layup by Shelton, her third field goal of the half.
The `Birds finished the half on a 7-5 run, stretching their lead to 50-37 heading into the locker room. Illinois State had a balanced scoring attack with nine players getting on the board. Lewis and Kristi Cirone collected nine points a piece. Schumacher led the Bearcats with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting.
Illinois State carried over the momentum into the early stages of the second-half, opening the frame on a 12-5 surge. Krick had back-to-back three-point field goals in the run to stretch the ISU advantage to 62-39 with 14:00 left in the half.
The Redbirds pushed their lead to 75-48 just prior to the 8:00 media timeout after back-to-back field goals by Bracey. Illinois State went up by 30, 85-55, after Bracey's fourth consecutive field goal with 4:19 left in the game. Senior Ashley Sandstead had four consecutive points in the final two minutes to propel the `Birds to a 90-57 advantage, their largest of the game.
Pingeton was especially pleased with the performance of her three freshmen.
"That's why we recruited them," Pingeton said. "Maggie (Krick) had another great night for us tonight. She plays with so much poise; you would never know she was just a freshman. I thought Kenyatta (Shelton) relaxed a lot more out there tonight. She's so quick and explosive, that sometimes she plays a little too fast at times. But I thought she played much more composed than she did in the first exhibition game. And Ashleen (Bracey) came in and did a great job for us. She had an opportunity to get some minutes, and took advantage of it. I'm excited for the rest of the season, because you can tell that our practices are going to be very competitive for game rotations, especially if our younger players continue to step up."
