USI women blow out DIII Principia College 2011/11/27 at 1:05 am
The game was over shortly after it started.
The University of Southern Indiana womens basketball team had a double-digit lead six minutes into the game and the Screaming Eagles advantage only grew from there as the cruised to a crushing 120-40 victory at the Physical Activities Center over visiting Principia College, an NCAA Division III school in Illinois.
The win improved Rick Steins USI team to 2-0. The loss was Principias first game of the season.
I loved our unselfish play, said Stein. We had times tonight where we could have taken a lot of open shots, but we kept executing our offense. Our guards did a great job of taking care of the ball and getting it down low.
Freshman center Anna Hackert finished with team highs of 24 points, eight rebounds and five steals in only 23 minutes of playing time.
Its all just experience. I was out there doing what I could to help us win. The only number our team cares about is the score, said Hackert, who led Memorial High to a Class 3A state championship in March.
USI came out pressuring the ball early on, creating 25 turnovers on 16 steals in the first half. After forcing several turnovers near midcourt, USI converted on the one-on-one transition opportunities. For the game, USI forced 41 turnovers with 29 coming off steals.
We were very aggressive tonight in the passing lanes not allowing their offense to really get anything. I think we outmanned Principia a little bit, but defensively were still a work in progress, said Stein. Were getting better game by game.
During the times where USI had to pull back and run its offense, the Eagles utilized ball movement to pick apart Principias 2-3 zone defense. After USIs guards drew the defense out near the perimeter, they forced the ball down low, and ended up outscoring Principia 65-12 in the paint and 64-7 in points off turnovers.
I think were pretty deep in the frontcourt and having three or four options down there to get it to is going to be our strength all year, Stein said.
Freshman forward Brooke Valentine added 20 points and senior Kristin Raker had 11.
Leading 9-6, the Eagles used a 15-0 run to essentially put the game away with a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the first half with Hackert and Valentine each having a pair of baskets in the spurt. The Eagles led 56-16 at the break.
USI will play Mid-Continental at 6 pm Friday at the PAC.