ROMEOVILLE, Ill. - Lewis women's basketball dominated UW-Parkside 74-58 in a battle of the top two clubs in the Great Lakes Valley Conference North Division on Saturday evening. The win puts Lewis in a tie with UW-Parkside for first place in the GLVC North.
Junior Jenny Turpel (Johnsburg, Ill./Johnsburg), coming off career highs of 37 points and 17 rebounds against St. Joseph's on Thursday, finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and most impressively a season-best six assists against the Rangers on Saturday.
"I think Jenny did a nice job with the double team," head coach Lisa Carlsen said. "Our other post players did a nice job of diving to the basket and it's an easy read for JT (Turpel)."
Junior Kelly Monaco (Chicago, Ill./Resurrection) scored 12 points, connecting on 4-of-4 3-point attempts in the first half. Sophomore Devon Carbaugh (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) totaled 12 points and five rebounds in just 17 minutes of play due to foul trouble.
Despite early foul trouble to three of Lewis' starters, the Flyers led 42-31 at the break thanks to Monaco's success from beyond the arc. The Rangers scored the first and second baskets of the game for their only leads of the contest. Lewis jumped out to a quick 20-12 lead thanks to eight early points by freshman Labrenthia Murdock (Round Lake, Ill./Round Lake).
The second half was more of the same with the Flyers leading by as many as 20 down the stretch.
Lewis shot 52.6 percent from the field (30-of-57) while limiting UW-Parkside to 40.0 percent shooting (24-of-60). The Rangers' Jadee Rooney, who entered the game averaging 13 points a game, tallied just two points in the game.
"I thought defensively we sustained our intensity so we never allowed their run to come in the second half," Carlsen said.
The Lewis bench outscored the Rangers' 23-10.
The Flyers have won four consecutive games and seven of their last nine. The win puts Lewis' home GLVC win streak to 11 games, dating back to last season.
The two clubs won't wait long to tangle again as they play the second of their back-to-back series on Thursday at 5:30 in Wisconsin. The game can be heard on WJOL 1340 AM or online at LewisFlyers.com. A win would give Lewis the head-to-head tie-breaker over the Rangers and put their magic number to win the GLVC North at two.
UW-Parkside is now 18-5 (10-4 GLVC). Lewis is 14-9, (10-4 GLVC).
A Catholic university sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, Lewis offers nearly 80 undergraduate majors and programs of study, accelerated degree completion options for working adults, various aviation programs and 22 graduate programs in nine fields. The 9th largest private, not-for-profit university in Illinois is being honored for the sixth consecutive year by The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report.
