After the Western Illinois women’s basketball team (13-12, 7-5) cut the #21/#16 South Dakota (23-2, 12-0) lead to single digits at half, the Coyotes opened the third quarter on a 10-0 run to pull away 88-51 on Thursday (Feb. 13) night.
At 3:11 in the second quarter, the Elizabeth Lutz show aired in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center and silenced the sea of red. She drilled three triples along with two bigs steals and cut the deficit to single digits at half, 37-28.
However, similar to the first meeting between both sides in Macomb on Dec. 29, the Coyotes used the second half to secure the victory as the No. 1 team in the Mid Major poll began a 10-0 run to start.
Lutz finished with a season-high in points (18) and tied a career-high in steals (5) en route to being the leading scorer for the second time this season.
It took a minute before each sided started lighting up the scoreboard to begin the game with four lead changes and two times the score was tied. Olivia Kaufmann drilled a three at 4:28 to make it 10-10, but the Coyotes responded with a 12-2 run to end the quarter up 22-12.
A pair of free throws by Grace Gilmore and an Evan Zars quick move to the bucket cut the Coyotes lead to eight at 8:04 in the second, but the Summit preseason favorites responded with a 10-0 run.
Western Illinois has a quick turnaround with the host of North Dakota on Saturday (Feb. 15) at 4:30 p.m. for its Think Pink game.
***Report Courtesy of Western Illinois University***
