Greenville Edges Eureka Late, 67-62
GREENVILLE, Ill. – For most of the game, the Eureka women's basketball team was right there with Greenville on Wednesday.
But in the last few minutes, the Panthers found enough separation to record a 67-62 win over the Red Devils.
Eureka senior Olivia Falls (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington) tallied a team-high 19 points, with 10 coming in a fourth quarter when the rest of the Red Devil scorers went cold. She collected a team-high eight boards and shot 7-for-17 from the floor.
Junior Sydney Hannam (Canton, Ill./Canton/Spoon River) followed with 15 points – all coming on 3-pointers. She shot 5-of-7 from beyond the arc on the game, with four of the five coming in the first half.
Senior Marissa Murphy (Canton, Ill./Canton) added 11 points in 20 minutes off the bench, while senior Kennedy Jackson (Peoria, Ill./Limestone/Carl Sandburg) and Abby Stotler (Wyoming, Ill./Stark County/MacMurray) each notched six points.
Jackson was a big-time contributor on both ends of the floor, finishing with six boards, four assists, one steal and a career-high four blocks.
The Red Devils came out of the gate hot, going 8-for-14 from the field in the first quarter with a pair of 3s. The team jumped out a 20-10 lead in the first eight minutes of play.
The team gradually cooled down as the game went on, however. Greenville chipped away at the lead in the first six minutes of the second quarter until the game was tied at 27-27.
Greenville briefly led on a few occasions in the second frame, before the Red Devils ended the half with an 8-0 run to take a 39-33 lead into the break.
The third quarter was a tight, back-and-forth affair that ended with Eureka clinging to a one-point advantage. The Red Devils' last lead of the contest came at 59-58 with 4:36 remaining. Then, the Panthers pieced together a 9-3 run to end the game.
Greenville had pretty even scoring distribution throughout the game, with nine players scoring between four and 12. Three Panthers reached double figures, with Ashley Anderson and Payten Morris each scoring 12 and Abigail Reinneck finishing with 10. Morris pulled down 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double.
On Saturday at 1 p.m., the Red Devils (10-13, 6-7 SLIAC) will look to close out the regular season on a winning note, when Principia (1-18, 0-13) comes to town for Senior Day.