East Peoria, Ill.---The ICC and Kirkwood women's basketball teams have had many great battles over the last 33 years and Saturday afternoon was no different as #3 Kirkwood edged the #4 Cougars 64-60 in the Cougar Classic at Ramsey Gym.  

Both teams started out strong defensively and worked to establish their respective inside games.  As a result, the Cougar posts, Cierra McNamee, Kristyn Mitchell, Keijah Gray, and T'yana Lovelace tallied all but two of the first quarter points to give ICC an 18-15 first quarter lead.  ICC got careless with the ball in the second period with seven turnovers, allowing Kirkwood to knot the score at 26-all at the half.

The Eagles went on a 16-1 run to start the third as they got the shots they wanted while the Cougar offense stalled to take a 42-27 lead and eventually a 51-36 advantage heading into the fourth.  ICC worked the ball back inside and locked down on defense to slowly whittle the deficit behind the scoring of Gray, Courtney Jones, and McNamee.  McNamee scored on a feed from Jones with 2:21 remaining to make the score 59-53.  

After a McNamee free throw, Mitchell hit a trey with :50 seconds to draw ICC to within 59-57 but the Cougars fouled on the next possession and Kirkwood made a free throw to go up 60-57.  ICC ran a possession and, with the shot clock winding down, Derria Edwards shot an off-balance three-pointer from the top of the key that banked in with :10 seconds to tie the score at 60-all.  Kirkwood called timeout to set up a play and as they ran it, there was a scrum for the loose ball and ICC was called for a foul.  Kirkwood hit both free throws to take a 62-60 lead; ICC ran a play but missed a potential go-ahead three-pointer and Kirkwood made two free throws to seal the win.

"Today's game was a typical ICC vs. Kirkwood battle," ICC women's basketball coach Karrie Redeker said.  "We went toe-to-toe in the first half and then they took control in the third, but we clawed back to have a chance at the end.  We're proud of our kids for their resilience but we have to play more disciplined on both ends of the floor to win games against the quality opponents we're playing.  But, we'll learn from this."  

Leaders:
Kristyn Mitchell 17 pts/9reb
Cierra McNamee 14 pts/7reb
Peyton Dearing 7 assists/1 charge taken

Next up:  The Cougars' (2-3) tough stretch of games continues as they head next to Kansas City, KS to take on two more teams ranked in the Top 10 of the NJCAA women's basketball poll.  Friday, November 19th the team will play #7 Kansas City Kansas CC in Kansas City, KS at 6:00 pm and then on Saturday, November 20th they'll play #2 Johnson County CC in Overland Park, KS.