Redbirds Extend Win Streak To 6 With Victory Over Loyola

Image courtesy of goredbirds.com

NORMAL Ill.- Illinois State Women’s Basketball came into the game against Loyola with a 5 game winning streak and now with this win the streak is now at 6 games. The final score for the game was 68-50.

Offensively, the Redbirds started off the first half with with scores at the three-point line and in the paint with a lot of the points coming in the paint. With the second quarter of the match the paint was still a key part but there was almost a 4 minute run with neither team scoring a point, this run only highlights how good the defense is between the two teams.

At halftime, the Redbird stat leaders were DeAnna Wilson led the team with 12 points and Forward Kate Pullman led in rebounds with 5, all of them coming from the defensive side of the ball. Maya Wong lled in assists with 2. For the Ramblers Sam Galanopoulos led with 6 points. Sitori Tanin led the team in rebounds with 5. Then Julia Hoefing led with 2 assists. 

From halftime forward defense was a strong focus for both teams. Each team had focused on the perimeter defense and letting the points come from the paint. Illinois State had held the lead in the game for the majority of the game. 

At the end of the game, Coach Kristen Gillespie shared what she thought of the teams performance “What I love is for the most part, unless we got fatigued, I thought we shared the ball. I though We took really good shots. De was outstanding. I think that was the player of the year performance that she keeps having, and then you know Kate starts us off with hitting the three, just kinda open things up and settles us in and run the ball for us” Said Coach Gillespie 

At the end of the game For the Redbirds  DeAnna Wilson led the team with 25 points, Kate Bullman led in rebounds with 10, and Maya Wong led in assists with 5. For the Ramblers, Julia Hoefling and Maya Chandler led in points with 10, Sitori Tanin led the team in rebounds with 7, Julia Hoefling and Maya Chandler led the team in assists 7.

From a shooting perspective. ISU ended with the field goal percentage of 55.6%, Three point percentage of 33.3% and the free throw line percentage was 80%. Loyola ended with a field goal percentage of 36.8% Three point percentage of 25% and a free throw percentage of 50%. ISU had primarily relied on the starters, all the starters played 30+ minutes with 3 plates coming off the bench.

The next game for the Redbird is Thursday January 20th at 6 P.M. versus Southern Illinois.