March 2, 2007

Box Score

EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Lewis University women's basketball team took the first step toward capturing the Great Lakes Valley Conference title by defeating Southern Indiana 63-48 Friday night in a GLVC Championship quarterfinal game at Roberts Stadium.

Lewis, the tournament's top seed and 9th-ranked team in NCAA Division II, added to its school-record win total and improved to 25-3 with a sixth consecutive victory. Southern Indiana finished 16-12.

After USI scored the first basket, Lewis took firm control of the game with a 26-4 run that gave the Flyers their largest lead, 26-6, at the 10:01 mark of the first half.

GLVC Player of the Year Darcee Schmidt drilled four 3-pointers and scored 14 of her game-high 22 points during the outburst, while Mary Moskal and Lauren Martens netted five points apiece.

After Lewis carried a 32-19 advantage into the locker room at intermission, five different players scored in an 11-5 spurt that padded the Flyers' lead to 43-24 less than four minutes into the second half.

However, Southern Indiana suddenly caught fire and made things much more interesting than perhaps they should have been. Brittany Neuman scored nine of her 11 points during a 19-4 surge that sliced the Lewis lead to 47-43 with 7:22 to play.

Although the Flyers regrouped, the contest still was in doubt with less than 3 minutes to play and Lewis on top 54-48. But a conventional 3-point play by Erin Cox and a bucket by Schmidt put the game out of reach, assuring the Flyers a berth in Saturday's 6 p.m. semifinal against Bellarmine.

Schmidt added a game-high 11 rebounds to her scoring total, giving her six double-doubles for the year.

Lewis also received solid contributions from Moskal (13 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists), Cox (11 points, 5 rebounds), Jenna Mooberry (7 rebounds), Martens (8 points) and Brittney Diener (game-high 6 assists).

Neuman collected a team-high nine rebounds for Southern Indiana. Sabrina Brandon led the USI scoring effort with 12 points.

The Flyers held Southern Indiana to a .283 shooting mark and forced 18 turnovers while committing only 12 miscues themselves. USI edged Lewis on the boards by a 44-41 count.

In other quarterfinal action Friday, Bellarmine topped Southern Illinois Edwardsville 68-55, Northern Kentucky downed Missouri-Rolla 67-52 and Drury defeated Kentucky Wesleyan 74-63.