Eastern Illinois women's basketball hung tough with Big 12 member Iowa State on Sunday afternoon leading after the first quarter and trailing by just two points at the half. The Cyclones separated themselves in the third quarter to pick up the 77-61 win.
EIU ends its season opening road trip to the state of Iowa at 0-3 and plays at Saint Louis on Wednesday before its home opener next Saturday against Evansville. Iowa State improved to 3-0.
Four players provided the first quarter scoring with
Clara Glad scoring five of her eleven points in the opening quarter as EIU held a 17-16 lead shooting 54.5 percent from the floor.
Abbie Boutilier,
Janyah Bohanon and
Meioshe Mason each added four first quarter points.
Nevaeh Dickman provided most of the Panthers offense in the second quarter with EIU trailing 33-31 at the break. Iowa State shot 50 percent in the quarter to take the lead as the Cyclones scored the final four points of the quarter following
Nyah Hardy's 3-pointer with 1:39 that put the Panthers up 31-29. Sienna Harvey scored to tie the game before Xiao Zhang scored with two seconds left to put ISU in front.
Zhang scored six points in an 8-2 third quarter opening run which pushed the ISU lead to 41-33 just two and half minutes into the second half. She was one of four Cyclones in double figures with 14 points.
Alex-Anne Bessette scored with 5:40 to play in the quarter giving ISU its first double figure lead of the game. ISU led 55-44 at the end of three.
Dickman's jumper to open the fourth quarter cut the margin back to single digits followed by a three point play by Bohanon that trimmed ISU's lead to 55-49 with 8:23 to play in the game.
ISU countered with a quick 5-0 run and held EIU at a double digit deficit most of the remainder of the game. Tjasa Turnsek led ISU with 20 points.
EIU finished the game shooting 48.9 percent from the field with Dickman leading EIU with 13 points. Hardy provided ten points off the bench. Boutilier had three blocks to go with six points and eight rebounds.