JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — The Illinois College women’s basketball team scored the first 15 points Saturday and went on to a 62-41 Midwest Conference victory over Lawrence University.
Brittany Burgess scored a game-high 23 points to lead Illinois College (11-8, 9-5 MWC), and Hannah McGinnis had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Alex Deshler paced Lawrence (3-16, 1-13) with 15 points, and Andrea Wilkinson added 14. Courtney Schmidt and Kassidy Rinehart grabbed six rebounds apiece for the Vikings.
Deshler now has 858 career points, and is just 11 points away from passing Carrie Van Groll for 10th place on Lawrence’s career scoring list.
After Lawrence stopped the early scoring run with Beth Hoster’s jumper, the Lady Blues scored the next eight points to build their biggest lead of the half at 23-2.
Lawrence finally found its shooting touch and finished the first half strong. The Vikings outscored Illinois College 17-8 over the final 8:31 to cut the lead to 31-19 at the break. Deshler scored 11 points during that stretch and Wilkinson added six.
The Vikings edged closer in the second half with the help six consecutive points that trimmed the lead to 38-27 with 13:40 remaining. Illinois College finally put the Vikings away by scoring the game’s next 17 points.