East Peoria, Ill. - A solid effort from up and down the lineup gave the #19 Illinois Central College women's basketball team an 80-56 win over Lincoln Land in Region 24/M-WAC play on Saturday afternoon in Ramsey Gym.  The Cougars dished out 26 assists and worked together as a cohesive unit on the defensive end to limit the Loggers to 34% shooting while forcing 19 turnovers and snagging 11 steals.  ICC is now 17-9 overall, 5-4 in Region 24 while LLCC falls to 18-7 overall, and 4-4 in Region 24.

Peyton Dearing got the Cougars on the board with a three-pointer on the opening possession and then Naomi Elliott, Dearing and Miya Webb scored to give ICC a 9-8 lead.  Elena Redgate added two baskets but the Loggers closed the quarter on a run to take a 19-15 advantage after one quarter of play. 

The Cougars tallied four turkeys (a turkey is 3 stops in a row) in the second quarter (forcing nine LLCC turnovers) to grab the lead back and take command of the game by outscoring LLCC 22-6 during the frame.  Offensively, the home team dished out eight assists to score ten baskets---as Webb nailed two three-pointers and had a pull-up jumper while Redgate and Gilbert each had four points to give the Cougars a 37-25 halftime lead.

The Cougar defense recorded two more turkeys to open the third and Gilbert, Block, and Elliott scored to put ICC up 43-27.  Webb splashed in another trey (assist Laisha Armendariz Lopez) and Paris Wilson added two scores to keep the Cougars ahead 53-37 heading into the fourth.

Elliott and T'yana Lovelace scored for ICC but LLCC kept pace at 61-46 until four free throws from Gilbert opened the ICC lead up to 65-46.  The Cougars got scores on two high-low attacks between Redgate and Gilbert and then got two more scores on similar plays from Macy Petelin and Lovelace (assists Block and Petelin) for the final margin.

STATISTICAL LEADERS
Halie Gilbert | 14 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists
Miya Webb | 14 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
Elena Redgate | 12 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds
Kyleigh Block | 8 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds, 2 steals
Laisha Armendariz | 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
vs. D1 Highland Cougars (10-15)
Wednesday, February 22nd - 5:30 PM
@ Ramsey Gym - East Peoria, Ill.
WATCH LIVE (YouTube)