Champaign, Ill. - Courtney Jones' rebound putback with 0.4 seconds lifted the #14 ICC women's basketball team to a 58-56 victory over #13 Parkland at the Dodds Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon in M-WAC and Region 24 action. The Cougars' shot in the final seconds airballed but Jones, who was just underneath the goal, alertly grabbed the miss for a reverse layup that she released just before the buzzer sounded to give ICC the win.
"Courtney was in the right place at the right time and just made a head's up play as she often does," ICC head coach
Karrie Redeker said. "We practice reverse layups a lot in our Mikan shooting drills so it was nice to see that work pay off."
The game opened in nip-and-tuck fashion with ICC taking a 10-9 lead behind the inside play of
Kristyn Mitchell and a three-pointer by
Kayla Gordon.
Kyleigh Block sparked the Cougars with back-to-back buckets to give ICC a narrow 19-18 lead after one.
Cierra McNamee and
Derria Edwards hit treys to start the second period while the Cougar defense picked up steam, holding Parkland to just four points in the stanza. The Cougars continued to roll as Jones, Edwards, and
Keijah Gray scored along with a
Dayja Evans triple to put ICC up 36-24 at the half.
Parkland started the third strongly to cut their deficit to 36-31 but free throws by
Peyton Dearing, Gray, and a basket by
T'yana Lovelace pushed the lead back out to 42-31 at the 2:46 mark. A steal and layup by Edwards gave ICC their biggest lead of the afternoon at 44-31 but Parkland responded to trail 46-37 heading into the fourth.
After a Mitchell basket, the Cougars held a 48-39 lead with just over eight minutes, but Parkland continue to chip away to trail 50-45. After an ICC turnover, PC scored four points in three seconds as they made a field goal, missed the free throw and got the rebound for a stickback to close to 50-49 with 3:27 left. The Cougars maintained the lead as Gray scored inside and Gordon added a layup but Parkland answered to stay within 54-53 with 1:20 to play. Each team had empty possessions before McNamee was fouled and hit two free throws giving the Cougars a 56-53 lead with :18 seconds left. The Cougar defense forced a turnover and PC fouled, but ICC missed both attempts; Parkland then hit a three-pointer to knot the score at 56-all, setting up Jones' heroics on the game's final play.
"Every defensive stop, free throw, basket...every last bit of it was crucial to getting this win," Redeker said. "We bent, but we didn't break and are so proud of our kids for their resilience and finding a way to pull it out."
Check out the video of the final shot, courtesy of
Alex Staab's twitter (
@StaabAlex):
Statistical Leaders:
Derria Edwards | 13 pts, 1 chg taken
Keijah Gray | 8 pts, 8 reb
Cierra McNamee | 7 pts, 6 reb
Kristyn Mitchell | 7 pts
Kayla Gordon | 5 pts, 3 asts, 1 chg taken
Courtney Jones | 4 pts, 4 reb, 4 asts
Next Game:
#13 ICC COUGARS (19-9, 9-3)
vs. Lewis & Clark (8-9, 3-8)
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022
5:30 PM Tipoff
Live Video
Live Audio
In-Game Updates
