ROCHESTER, Mich. – The No. 5 seed IUPUI Jaguars blew by the No. 4 seed Oakland Golden Grizzlies in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League Women's Basketball Championship, 86-64 on Tuesday (March 2).
The Jags shot over 49 percent from the floor and over 54 percent from three as the league's top offense propelled IUPUI in to the semifinals.
Macee Williams led all scorers with 28 points, going 12-for-20 from the field. Three other Jaguars joined Williams in double figures with
Katelyn O'Reilly (15),
Rachel McLimore (14) and
Destiny Perkins (12) all finishing with more than 10 points.
Natalie Andersen led all bench players with eight points, hitting all three shots, including both threes.
Perkins pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds to lead IUPUI and added five of the Jags 19 assists. McLimore led the Jags with six assists.
"I am really proud of our squad playing so well with such a long break in between games," said head coach
Austin Parkinson. "Macee played like the best player in the league and Katelyn had one of her best games of the year. We look forward to competing in Indy next week."
IUPUI led wire-to-wire, jumping out to an 8-2 lead after Williams hit her second basket of the day. After Oakland cut the lead to three, Williams responded with two buckets and Perkins and O'Reilly each scored to push the lead to 18-7. A
Natalie Andersen three with 2:51 in the quarter gave IUPUI a 25-9 lead.
As was a theme for the whole game, IUPUI worked the ball inside. The Jags finished with 18 points in the paint in the first quarter and when they did not score in the paint they got to the free throw line. The Jags were 6-for-8 from the stripe in the quarter. For the game, IUPUI outscored Oakland 46-26 in the paint and held a 20-11 advantage at the free throw line.
Up 12 to start the second quarter, Perkins hit a three but Oakland did not let IUPUI run away with things. The Golden Grizzlies managed to get the score back in single digits multiple times in the quarter but IUPUI always had an answer, usually in the form of Perkins, Williams or O'Reilly. Two O'Reilly free throws with under ten seconds to go in the quarter put IUPUI up 11 at the break.
Early in the third quarter, Williams hit a layup after an offensive rebound by O'Reilly and McLimore added a three-point play to push the lead back up to 13. With 5:53 in the third, Oakland cut IUPUI's lead to seven but Williams responded for IUPUI with a free throw and a layup to possessions later to get the lead back to 10.
To start the fourth, it was back to the three-time Horizon League Player of the Year as Williams hit two free throws, and two layups to end her day with 28 points and put the Jags back in control. After two free throws made the score 69-56, McLimore earned a three-point play and
Sydney Roule hit her first three of the game to put IUPUI up 19. The Jags lead hit 25 just a minute later as Roule and Andersen hit back-to-back triples.
Agatha Beier's free throw with one minute left on the clock gave IUPUI a season-high 86 points.
While the offense shined, the defense fared just as well. The Jags held Oakland to just 36 percent from the floor and 28 percent from deep. IUPUI's defense held All-Horizon League First Team member and the league's fourth leading scorer Kahlaijah Dean to just 13 points on 3-for-14 shooting, including 1-for-6 from three point range. The 13 points were the fewest for Dean in her last seven games.
The Jags dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Golden Grizzlies 50-30. Behind Perkins, Williams added nine rebounds and O'Reilly finished with eight.
IUPUI will now wait until the rest of the quarterfinals are finished to see who its opponent will be in the Horizon League Semifinals on Monday (March 8).
