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CINCINNATI – Cincinnati's Shelly Bellman connected on a 25-footer as the shot clock expired with 25 seconds remaining in a three-point game, providing the decisive points in the Bearcats' 52-47 victory against Eastern Illinois women's basketball Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the Courtyard Marriott Florence Thanksgiving Classic.
Eastern won the rebounding battle 32-23 but came up on the wrong end of a 21-15 turnover margin.
Cincinnati improved to 5-1 on the season with the victory, winning all three of its games at the four-team tournament.
Bellman connected on four of her team's nine 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 16 points. Half of the Bearcats' 18 field goals were scored from long range. Eastern made five 3s.
Each of UC's last three field goals was a 3-pointer, with Bellman connecting on the final two. Her clutch, game-deciding shot ended a four and a half minute scoring drought. During that span EIU got a pair of field goals from Galligan, the second coming with 1:19 remaining, making it a 48-45 game.
The Panthers committed a foul on the subsequent UC possession and the Bearcats had the ball on their end of the floor for nearly a minute. After calling a timeout with eight seconds remaining on the shot clock, the ball eventually came to Bellman on the left wing. Her contested heave from the left wing was a clean swish.
“Sometimes you get breaks, sometimes you don't,” EIU head coach Brady Sallee said. “The most important thing for us is the fact that we had a game plan and I thought we executed it very well both offensively and defensively. We're going to live with our execution; shots are going to in and shots aren't. We drew some stuff up and got some really good looks when we needed them. Probably too many turnovers to beat a Big East team, but we were right in the game and had our chances. Shelly Bellman hit a big shot.”
Besides connecting on 5-of-10 from the field, including a 3-pointer, Canale also collected four rebounds and four assists. She limited Cincinnati's leading scorer, Kahla Roudebush (a former high school teammate of Kluempers), to 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting. The Panthers also held Jill Stephens, UC's second-leading scorer, without a field goal attempt.
Eastern led for the first nine minutes of the game and by as many as seven during that span. However, Cincinnati responded to the seven-point deficit with an 11-2 run. The Panthers regained the advantage on a 3-pointer by
Ashley Thomas, but did not score again from the field until Galligan connected on a layup in the final seconds of the half. The Bearcats reeled off 10 unanswered points during the EIU drought to take a five-point lead to the locker room.
It was those five points that proved to be the difference in the game after the two teams played to an even 25-25 draw during the final 20 minutes.
Eastern used a 10-3 run in the second half to take its final lead of the game at 36-35 with 11:24 remaining. But UC answered with a basket on the other end of the floor, a field goal that ignited a 13-5 spurt. It remained a two-possession game until Galligan scored with 1:19 left.
En route to finishing as the runner-up of the tournament, all 14 Panthers saw action over the course of the three games. Galligan scored in double-figures in every contest.
Eastern returns to action Thursday when it opens Ohio Valley Conference play against Tennessee State. Tipoff at Lantz Arena is slated for 5:30 p.m.
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Ben Turner, Asst. SID
