Box Score
INDIANAPOLIS – Behind a 21-2 second-half run, the IUPUI women’s basketball team defeated the IU-Southeast Grenadiers, 64-59, Tuesday evening, giving the Jaguars their first win of the season and the first win of the
Austin Parkinson era.
“I am proud of the ladies in the way they competed in the second half,” Parkinson said. “We were able to get stops in the second half, which got us out in transition and led to some easy buckets.”
“Tonight we only had 15 turnovers and we had 19 assists. For us to be able to do that and get stops on the other end was a good step for our team.”
Kerah Nelson benefited from some of those transition buckets en route to a career-high 27 points. Nelson also added four assists and committed just one turnover after committing 10 in IUPUI’s first two games.
While Nelson stood out,
Shea Collins and
Janna Eichelberger provided a lift off the bench combining for 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting. Eichelberger’s 15 points were two shy of her career high and Collins’ 13 points marked her first career double-digit scoring performance.
“I was really proud of Shea tonight because we know she can score, but she has been working every day defensively and it’s amazing when you work hard in practice how it translates to the game and she was a factor in that second half,” Parkinson said. “Janna is coming off an injury and hasn’t had many reps in practice so for her to contribute the way she did tonight was a big boost for us.”
The Grenadiers took an early seven-point lead courtesy of a 9-0 run, before IUPUI responded with a nine-point surge of its own to take an 11-9 lead midway through the opening 20 minutes.
The back-and-forth first half ensued and IUPUI eventually recaptured the lead when
Jasmine Horne saved the ball underneath the Jaguars hoop to
Shakeeta Cotton, and Cotton found Collins for a three-pointer, placing IUPUI on top, 20-19.
IU-Southeast countered with a 9-2 run placing the Grenadiers in front, 28-22, with 3:29 remaining, before a pair of Nelson lay-ups and a
Gretchen Gaskin old-fashioned three-point play evened the score at 29 with 1:03 to play in the half.
Trailing by two and holding for the final shot of the half, IUPUI turned the ball over on a held ball and Whitney Duncan banked a running trifecta at the buzzer giving the Grenadiers a five-point lead, 34-29, entering intermission.
IUPUI came out of halftime and immediately went to Nelson in the post who converted a lay-up that cut the five-point halftime deficit to three, 34-31, just 11 seconds in, but consecutive three-pointers on the other end by Alden Krausse widened the Grenadiers cushion to 40-31, forcing IUPUI to burn a timeout.
Trailing by 10 points, 43-33, with 15:59 to play, IUPUI turned up the defensive intensity and held the Grenadiers scoreless for the next 6:39 and gave up just two points over the next 8:57. During that stretch, the Jaguars went on a 21-2 run, highlighted by eight points from Collins and seven from Nelson, giving IUPUI a 54-45 lead with 7:02 on the clock.
The Grenadiers battled back and closed to within three points, 62-59 with 31 seconds to play, but a fastbreak lay-up by Nelson put the Jaguars up by five points and sealed the 64-59 win.
Dawn Luster saw her first action of the season in the win and while her stats were not eye-popping, her presence on the floor was significant.
“Dawn is coming back from a knee injury and if you look at her production when she came in, the score turned around in our favor in her two four-minute segments,” Parkinson added.
The Jaguars are back in action this weekend when they travel to Notre Dame, Ind., to take part in the 2010 WBCA Classic. The tournament is a four-team, round-robin tournament that will showcase IUPUI against No. 12 Notre Dame on Friday, Nov. 26 at 2 p.m., before taking on Butler and Wake Forest on Saturday, Nov. 27, and Sunday, Nov. 28, respectively.
