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For Immediate Release
Women's Basketball -- Feb. 5, 2011
Fontbonne Downs Eureka Women's Basketball, 70-64
EUREKA, Ill. – The Eureka College women’s basketball team came within a single possession of erasing an 18-point deficit in the final seven minutes of Saturday’s game against Fontbonne, but the defending St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion Griffins scored 10 unanswered points late before holding on for a 70-64 win over the Red Devils at the Reagan Center.
Fontbonne held a four-point lead (43-39) after Eureka freshman Caty Eeten (Eureka, Ill./Eureka H.S.) knocked down a pair of free throws with 14:42 remaining. The Griffins proceeded to hold the Red Devils scoreless over the next, 7-minutes, 33-seconds while building a 57-39 lead on Kendra Schilli’s layup with 7:20 remaining. The Red Devils came to life shortly thereafter, rattling off a 19-3 burst over the next 5-minutes, 8-seconds. A basket by junior forward Khassandrae Brown (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria, Ill./Kankakee) ended the run with the Red Devils trailing Fontbonne 60-58 with 2:12 left. Eeten score 10 points during the run.
The Griffins ended the run with eight unanswered points and led by double-digits again in the final minute, 68-58. Eureka went cold from the field, missing three consecutive shots during the stretch before Eeten and Sara Hamilton (Washington, Ill./Washington H.S./Illinois Central) made consecutive baskets in a stretch of five seconds to trail 68-62. Eeten made Eureka’s final bucket with five seconds left before Schilli iced the game with a pair of foul shots.
Eureka scored the first four points of the game and controlled the contest in the early stages. The Red Devils led by as many as four points (13-9) on a free throw from junior forward Lisa Byard (Morton, Ill./Morton H.S.) with 10:16 left before halftime. The Griffins took their first lead of the afternoon Shelby Ellison’s 3-pointer less than two minutes later and the Griffins eventually led by seven (30-23) on Kaitlin Bramel’s layup with 2:35 left in the half. Eureka ended the first half on an 8-3 run behind four points from Brown and trailed the visitors at halftime, 33-31.
Brown scored a game-high 22 points, her fifth 20-point game of the season. Eeten, who has appeared in 11 games since joining the team at semester break, chipped in with 20 points to increase her season scoring average to a team-high 15.0 points per game. Byard scored all five of her points from the foul line and grabbed seven rebounds. She now has 537 rebounds in 68 career games and needs two boards to tie Bobbie Williams (1986-90) for ninth place on the all-time Eureka list.
Schilli scored 14 points to lead a group of three Fontbonne starters to score in double-figures. Chelsey Freymuth scored 11 points and collected a game-high 14 rebounds. The Griffins shot just 31 percent in the first half before recovering to connect on 58 percent of its shots in the final 20 minutes. Fontbonne held a 44-31 advantage in rebounds and recorded assists on its first 10 field goals of the game.
The Red Devils will play their final non-conference game of the season this Wednesday when they visit Lincoln Christian for a 5 p.m. tip-off in Lincoln, Ill. Eureka set four single-game school records in a 114-29 drubbing of the Red Lions last month at the Reagan Center.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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