Eureka Edges Monmouth in Overtime, 72-68

MONMOUTH – The Eureka women's basketball team fended off a late Monmouth push to secure a 72-68 road victory in overtime on Tuesday.

It was the Red Devils' first win over the Fighting Scots since 2018 and it moved the team to 2-1 on the season.

After leading by as many as 17 late in the third quarter, the Fighting Scots found a way back in the game in the fourth quarter and closed the gap down the stretch.

Monmouth's Ashley Jones sank a pair of free throws to tie the game at 61-61 with 13 seconds remaining. She also scored the first basket of overtime, but Eureka's Makayla Rosenbery (Mahomet, Ill./Mahomet-Seymour) answered with a 3-pointer that gave EC a 64-63 advantage.

A missed Monmouth layup later, Rosebery struck again with a jumper off an assist by Ashley Wilcox (Hudson, Ill./Normal West) to extend Eureka's lead to three points with 4:05 to play. The Fighting Scots never led again.

With 2:03 left, Wilcox made a jumper to make it 68-64, and though Monmouth cut the lead back to two on the next possession, a pair of Wilcox free throws with 45 seconds remaining made it 70-66.

Monmouth made it a two-point lead one more time on a steal and layup by Jones with less than 30 seconds left. Forced to foul, the Fighting Scots put Avery Seidel (Wayne City, Ill./Wayne City/Lincoln) at the line and she missed the first and made the second.

After a missed 3 by Monmouth's Jadyn Mitchell, Nevaeh Essien (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws to stretch the lead to four for the final time with nine seconds left. The Fighting Scots missed a pair of 3-point tries before time expired.

Seidel finished with a game-high and a career-high 20 points while making 10-of-13 free throw attempts in 35 minutes on the floor. Josie Ness (Sandwich, Ill./Sandwich) pulled down an impressive total of 16 rebounds and added 13 points and a career-high four blocks before fouling out after 31 minutes.

Wilcox also notched 13 points, along with four rebounds, three assists and three steals. Rosenbery and Essien each finished with nine points. Wilcox, Rosenbery, Ness and Ariel Chism (Pekin, Ill./Pekin) each knocked down a 3-pointer in the win.

Eureka shot a season-best 37.9 percent from the field and a season-best 70.6 percent from the field. The Red Devils also tied their season high in rebounds with 50 and set season-highs in assists (nine) and blocks (five).

Eureka (2-1) will look to keep it going in a road matchup at Knox (4-1) on Saturday at 2 p.m.