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ICC women go cold in Region XXIV championship
Rough second half ends Cougars season one victory from nationals
March 8, 2009
By JS Staff
Reprinted with permission of the Journal Star
The ICC women’s basketball team saw the Region XXIV title slip through its fingers with a 58-52 loss to Parkland on Sunday afternoon at Illinois College.
A day after using a balanced offense and defense effort to upset top-seeded Lewis & Clark, the Cougars played the exact opposite.
Leading 51-40 with just under 11 minutes to play, fourth-seeded ICC experienced one of its worst offensive droughts of the season.
Second-seeded Parkland (28-4) went on an 18-1 push to close out the game and earn a berth in the NJCAA Division II national tournament starting March 18 at Lorene Ramsey Gymnasium in East Peoria.
“We froze,” ICC coach Steve Garber said. “I called timeouts to change the offense but nothing worked.”
According to Garber, his team — including his post players — got out and ran the first half, shooting 41 percent (13-of-23) from the field and led 32-27 at halftime.
ICC (25-7), who had an eight-game win streak snapped, controlled the first nine minutes of the second half before the collapse.
The Cougars shot 22 percent (7-for-32) from the field and 12 percent (2-of-17) from 3-point land in the final 20 minutes.
Kathleen Donoho lead ICC with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Sara Hamilton came off the bench to score 10.
Parkland, who is riding a seven-game win streak, got 12 points and 13 rebounds from Heidi McKean.
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