The University of Illinois Springfield women's basketball team defeated the Quincy Hawks by a score of 79-74 on Saturday and secured the fifth seed in the GLVC Tournament.
Game Summary
- UIS scored first on a Liz Uhl jumper and Quincy responded to match it in the first of twelve lead changes
- The Prairie Stars and the Hawks remained within two points of eachother for the entirety of the first quarter, which ended tied 19-19
- UIS averaged just under 40% from the field and outrebounded Quincy 23-20 in the first half to lead by two at the intermission
- Quincy went up 45-38 on a 10-1 run in the third quarter. UIS came back to tie the game five minutes later on a pair of made three-pointers by Liz Uhl and Kayla Rice
- The Prairie Stars ended the third quarter up 54-53 after Jessenia Lawson made the needed free throw. The Hawks did not lead again
- UIS created some separation to lead 73-65 with under a minute to play and complete the win comfortably
- Jessenia Lawson led UIS in scoring with 17 points. She also managed 11 rebounds to complete yet another double-double
- Kayla Rice scored 16 points and led UIS in steals with a total of four
- UIS made 25-of-69 (36.2%) from the floor, 7-of-26 (26.9%) from three-point range and 22-of-27 (81.5%) from the charity stripe
- Rockhurst, Southwest Baptist, Lewis, Maryville, UMSL, and Drury won their GLVC matchups on Thursday
- UIS, Maryville, Lewis, William Jewell, Upper Iowa, McKendree, and Drury earned wins on Saturday
- The Drury Panthers are ranked No. 24 nationally, No. 6 in the Midwest Regional Rankings
- The Lewis Flyers are the GLVC Regular Season Champions
GLVC Tournament
The GLVC league office has officially announced the eight-team bracket for the upcoming GLVC Championship Tournament. The tournament is seeded based on the GLVC Point Rating System (PRS) rankings. The games will be hosted at a neutral site, Hyland Arena in St. Charles, Mo.
#5-seed UIS will play #4-seed Maryville in the quarterfinal round next Friday at 12:00 p.m. The Maryville Saints defeated the Rockhurst Hawks 85-60 on Saturday to set their single-season conference wins record (15), a feat UIS also achieved recently. The Prairie Stars won 79-74 when the teams met in November.
The four quarterfinal winners will compete in the semifinals on Saturday, March 9, at 12 and 2:15 p.m., while the semifinal winners will compete for the 2024 trophy on Sunday, March 10 at 1 p.m..