East Peoria, Ill.---A solid defensive and rebounding effort led the #5 ICC women's basketball team to an 82-40 win over Eureka College JV in the opening round of the 40th annual Cougar Holiday Tournament on Tuesday night in Ramsey Gym.  The Cougars held the Red Devils to 26% field goal shooting and swiped 17 steals while out-rebounding the guests 43-26 to get the win.  

ICC took a 19-10 lead after the first quarter and never looked back, stretching that to 40-18 by the half.  

Final box:
Cierra McNamee 19 pts, 5 reb, 2 stls
Kayla Gordon 16 pts, 5 reb, 3 asts, 3 stls, 1chg taken
Kristyn Mitchell 14 pts, 6 reb, 4 asts
T'yana Lovelace 15 pts, 6 reb
Courtney Jones 6 pts, 3 reb, 3 ast
Petyon Dearing 7 reb, 5 pts, 4 asts, 4 stls
Kyleigh Block 5 reb, 4 pts, 3 ast
Derria Edwards 5 stls, 4pts, 3 reb, 3 asts
Laisha Armendariz-Lopez 3 reb, 3 asts

Next up:  With the win, the Cougars, now 6-6, advance to Wednesday's semi-finals of the tournament to play Rend Lake (10-3) at 4pm in Ramsey Gym.  ICC lost to RLC on November 9 in Ina 87-74 and will need to be strong defensively to contain the high scoring Warriors, who are 5th in NJCAA DI scoring at 88 ppg and boast the nation's leading scorer, Dais'Ja Trotter, who scores 24.1 ppg.  


Wednesday, Dec. 29 schedule - (all games will be live-streamed on the ICC Cougars' Athletics YouTube Channel)
10am:  Palm Beach State vs. Black Hawk
12pm:  McHenry County vs. Eureka JV
  2pm:   #10 Bryant & Stratton vs. #1 Kirkwood
  4pm:   Rend Lake vs. #5 ICC 

Other Tuesday tourney scores:
Bryant & Stratton 88, Palm Beach State 61
Kirkwood 80, Black Hawk 54
Rend Lake 106, McHenry 64