Feb. 1, 2009
Box Score
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -
Illinois State (17-4, 8-1 MVC) beat Northern Iowa (6-13, 4-5 MVC), 67-55, Sunday afternoon to finish the first half of the Missouri Valley Conference schedule in sole possession for first place. The Redbirds, who have won six-straight games, won eight games in the first half of the conference slate for the third-straight year.
Kristi Cirone led all scorers once again with 18 points to go along with five assists, four rebounds and three steals. Cirone made her first three-pointer of the game to move past Jenny Schmidt for the ISU all-time lead. She now has 207 career three-pointers. Ashleen Bracey added 14 points and a team-best nine rebounds. Katie Broadway came off the bench with eight first-half points and three rebounds and one steal.
Despite a slow stretch in the second half, Illinois State never trailed in the game and led by double-digits for the last 17 minutes. ISU has not trailed in the last four games.
"This was a great win for our team to end the first half of the Valley schedule in first place," said head coach Robin Pingeton. "This is a tough place to play and we have only won here only once in the last 11 years. I thought we started the game strong, especially with our transition game. We also did a great job on the boards, especially in the first half, and those things proved to be big factors."
ISU took the lead on its opening possession and held it throughout the first half. The Panthers missed their first four shots and had trouble putting anything together on consecutive possessions. A 12-0 Redbird run pushed the gap to double-digits, 23-7, with 8:21 remaining in the half.
Cirone and Broadway sparked the Redbird offense to its biggest lead of the half, 30-12. Cirone has seven points, including a three-point play, and Broadway came off the bench to knock down a pair of three-pointers. UNI showed a little bit of life with six-straight points, but Jackson had a tough three-point play as she was fouled underneath on a layup after an offensive rebound and Broadway nailed a jumper in the final minute to give ISU a 35-18 halftime lead.
ISU held UNI to just seven field goals and 28 percent shooting from the field in the first half, while shooting at a 44 percent clip. It was the fourth time on the year that ISU kept an opponent under 20 points in a half, the last coming in the second half against Creighton Jan. 1.
Maggie Krick made a three-pointer early in the second half to extend the Redbird lead to 20 points, 44-24, but that was the last field goal they would have for a span of over six minutes. Northern Iowa put together a 9-2 run during the Redbird offensive lull, but still trailed by double-digits with midway through the half, 46-33.
Cirone snapped the scoring drought with a long three-pointer from the right side. There was an eight-minute stretch where the Redbirds scored just five points, all by Cirone.
In the end, the lead that ISU built over the first 23 minutes of the game was too much for UNI to overcome. The Panthers cut the deficit down to 10 points with five minutes left, but the Redbirds answered each UNI bucket to keep ahead by double-digits.
Illinois State returns home Saturday to host Indiana State (11-9, 7-2 MVC) at 1:05 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPNU.
