Kansas City
Western Illinois University
UMKC Advances To Summit League Championship With 71-56 Win Over Leathernecks
3/5/2012 3:07:00 PM | Women's Basketball
(Sioux Falls, S.D.) -- The No. 3 seed UMKC women's basketball team (22-10, 11-7) advanced to the championship game of the Summit League Tournament for the second time in school history and the first time since 2005 with a 71-56 win over No. 7 seed Western Illinois (12-19, 7-11) on Monday afternoon at the Sioux Falls Arena.
"Really proud that we won and have an opportunity to get to the championship game," UMKC Head Coach Candace Whitaker said. "Thought we defended well, thought we got to their three-point shooters well. Just got to keep it going. Proud to live another day."
For the Kangaroos, senior Dayon Hall-Jones and sophomore Eilise O'Connor led the squad with 15 points each, while junior Kim Nezianya and sophomore Ashli Hill added 12 and 11, respectively.
On the glass, the 'Roos out-rebounded WIU 42-31 with Hill (8), Nezianya (7) and O'Connor (7) leading the effort.
UMKC came out of the gate hot in the contest, building a 17-4 lead nearly six minutes in, getting six assists on their first seven field goals.
The Fighting Leathernecks battled back to pull to within five at 19-14, but a 10-1 run, featuring four points from senior LeAndrea Thomas, pushed the UMKC lead to 14 at 29-15 with 6:36 left to play.
"We know that Western [Illinois] plays hard for 40 minutes, so having a lead doesn't mean that we're going to win the game," Nezianya said. "We were just trying to not only keep the lead but build on the lead and just use that momentum to get us the win."
Western Illinois again fought back, trimming the lead to eight on four occasions, including late in the half at 36-28, but the Kangaroos closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 43-28 lead into the locker room.
Coming out of the break, WIU scored four of the first five points to cut the lead to 44-32 but eight straight by the 'Roos, including a pair of O'Connor jumpers, stretched the 'Roo lead to 20 for UMKC.
The Kangaroos would go on to build their lead to 21 on two separate occasions, with the latest coming at the 8:50 mark when a pair of free throws by senior Brianna Eldridge extended the lead to 58-37, before a 10-3 WIU rally cut the lead to 14 with 5:12 left to play.
The Leathernecks would get no closer, though, and UMKC would advance to the championship game with a 71-56 victory.
In the game, the 'Roos made 25 field goals on 15 assists and out-scored the Leathernecks 24-14 in the paint and 21-15 on second chance points, while shooting 81.0 percent (17-21) from the line.
Individually, Thomas added eight points, three assists and three steals, while junior Kaycie Boyles scored six points and grabbed three rebounds. Eldridge, meanwhile, grabbed five boards, while holding WIU's Saule Kontautaite scoreless in the contest.
Defensively, UMKC forced 19 WIU turnovers, including 12 on steals, matching the 12 by the 1999 squad for the most by a Kangaroo squad in a Summit League Tournament game.
The 'Roos will now look to win their eighth straight overall when they take on No. 1 South Dakota State in the 2012 Summit League Tournament Championship Game.
"You know, we have lost games we should've won and won games that maybe we shouldn't have won and our players know it's about what happens in the those 40 minutes," Whitaker said. "It doesn't matter what happened the last two meetings. We can't live off our success and we can't stay in our failures. So we're going to step on that floor and be ready to go and see what happens."
Tomorrow's contest is slated for a 3 p.m. start in the Sioux Falls Arena with the game airing on ESPNU.
