Thursday's Scoreboard
Troy 71, Toledo 64
Kent State 62, Georgia Southern 48
Northern Illinois 61, Eastern Illinois 48
Ball State 52, Providence 51
Stories Courtesy of MAC Sports Information
Troy 71, Toledo 64
Box Score
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – Toledo women's basketball suffered a 71-64 setback vs. Troy on Thursday afternoon at the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic in the South Point Arena. With the loss, the Rockets fall to 3-6 on the season.
Toledo was its own worst enemy at times against the Sun Belt Conference member Trojans (8-2), committing a season-high 22 turnovers. Troy took full advantage of those miscues and translated them into 30 points.
"I love the fight in our team," Head Coach Tricia Cullop said. "We fought hard to the end. We are very close, but we need to focus a little more on the details. We fought back a couple of times and pulled with four or six points, but we just couldn't get over the hump."
Junior Nakiah Black paced the Rockets with 12 points, a career-high 12 rebounds and four assists to post her first-collegiate double-double. Black's previous-best effort was nine caroms at Notre Dame on Nov. 20, 2019.
Freshman Quinesha Lockett shared top-scoring honors with Black, tallying 12 points off the bench, all in the second half.
The Rockets also received eight points each from junior Tanaya Beacham and classmate Tatyana Davis, followed closely by senior Mariella Santucci with seven.
As a team, Toledo shot 28.8 percent (17-of-59) from the floor, including 25.7 percent (9-of-35) from beyond the arc, and 70.0 percent (season-high 21-of-season-high 30) from the free throw line.
Kayla Robinson led Troy with a game-high 21 points, while Jasmine Robinson had 18.
The Trojans' play on the glass was also key in today's neutral-court matchup, as they had 21 offensive boards and scored 19 points off those second chances.
Kent State 62, Georgia Southern 48
Box Score
LAS VEGAS – Kent State totaled 14 steals and seven blocked shots while beating Georgia Southern, 62-48, in the opening game of the 2019 Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic Thursday afternoon at South Point Arena.
The Golden Flashes (6-3) held the Eagles to its lowest scoring output of the season and the fewest points by an opponent since last season against Ball State. Sophomores Asiah Dingle and Lindsey Thall and freshman Nila Blackford led the stellar defensive performance. Dingle had a career-high six steals while leading all players with 16 points and five assists. Thall rejected four shots and had a steal, while Blackford came up with two steals and three blocks.
Redshirt senior Megan Carter found her shooting touch from long range with a 3-for-4 performance from behind the three-point line and finished with 13 points.
Kent State will look to go 2-0 in Las Vegas when it plays Troy at 3 p.m. ET on Friday.
Northern Illinois 61, Eastern Illinois 48
Box Score
DeKALB, IL – It was a record-setting night for Northern Illinois University women's basketball forward Courtney Woods (Brisbane, Australia/St. Margaret's) Thursday night against Eastern Illinois, as the redshirt-senior made five three-pointers to become the Huskies' all-time leader in career threes as NIU defeated the Panthers 61-48 in the opening night of the Compass Challenge.
"I can honestly say I wasn't a shooter when I came in to NIU and now I have this record," said Woods following Thursday night's win. "It's a massive credit to this program, my teammates, and my coaches for getting me to this point and helping me with my shot. It's great to reach an awesome record like this."
Woods entered the night with 275 three-pointers, three behind Kylie York's 278 from 2006-10. She finished the night with five threes to give her 280 for her career and a game-high 25 points. Woods also had six rebounds and led NIU in assists for the seventh consecutive game with three. The redshirt-senior forward also moved into fourth place on the NIU all-time scoring chart with 1,834 points.
"Courtney is a great scorer and she was a great scorer the day she walked on campus," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "We expect her when she has looks at three to knock them down, and she does a great job of that. Her growth in other areas of her game have been the most impressive. It's not necessarily what she'll be known for, but there were a lot of possessions that I'm going to be really proud of her on the defensive end. There were other areas of the game that she helped us win tonight and her teammates recognize how hard she works at those."
After falling behind 31-27 at halftime, Woods sparked an NIU comeback in the third quarter. She opened the period with a three-point play 31 seconds into the game to get the Huskies within one. Eastern Illinois (5-4) extended its lead to seven, 37-30, with 7:43 to play in the third on six straight points from Abby Wahl.
NIU (4-5) then put the clamps on the Panthers defensively, holding Eastern Illinois scoreless over the next 6:15. NIU went on an 11-0 run over that stretch with Woods and Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) were a combined 6-for-6 from the foul line to put the Huskies up by four, 41-37, with 2:16 to play. The Panthers were able to close the gap to two before Woods split a pair of free throws with 0:07 left in the third to put NIU up 45-42 heading into the fourth. NIU was 9-for-11 from the foul line in the third as Eastern Illinois did not attempt a free throw.
"It was a little bit of a slow start for us," Carlsen said. "I think that happens sometimes when you have a big layoff, but I thought defensively we did a really nice job and that's what kept us in the game early. What won us the game is our consistency on the defensive end and being able to rebound the basketball."
Woods' third three-pointer of the game put NIU ahead 48-43 at the 6:17 mark of the fourth, sparking a 10-3 run over 3:45 which included the forward's record-tying triple and baskets by Brandon and Grace Hunter (Monroeville, Ind./Bellmont) that gave the Huskies a 55-46 lead. NIU saved its best defense for the final quarter, holding Eastern Illinois without a field goal for the first 6:39 and just 2-for-13 in the period. Woods closed the game with her record-breaking three-pointer with 1:58 to go in the game, then made her 280th career triple with 0:19 left to make the final score 61-48.
NIU finished the game shooting 32.8 percent from the field and 70.6 percent at the foul line. Eastern Illinois shot 30.3 percent from the field, 16.7 percent from the three-point arc, and was just 3-for-7 at the free throw stripe. The Huskies outrebounded the Panthers 52-43 with Brandon and Myia Starks (Plainfield, Ill./Nequa Valley) leading the way with seven boards each. The Huskies' other double-digit scorer in the win was freshman A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]), who scored all 10 of her points in the second quarter to help NIU get within four at halftime after trailing 14-5 in the first quarter. Wahl led Eastern Illinois with 18 point and 11 rebounds.
The Huskies will take on Southern Illinois in the championship game of the Compass Challenge presented by Holiday Inn Express and Suites Sycamore on Friday night at 7 p.m. All kids age 13 and under can receive $3 tickets for Friday's game. SIU defeated Western Illinois 79-65 in Thursday's first game.
Ball State 52, Providence 51
Box Score
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - In true senior fashion, Jasmin Samz knocked down a 3-pointer to give Ball State a 52-51 lead over Providence with nine seconds remaining. Samz basket ended up being the game-winner for the Cardinals Thursday night in "The Pit".
Ball State (6-4) remains undefeated (2-0) with its 52-51 victory over Providence (8-3) at the 2019 Lobo Invitational hosted by New Mexico.
It was a low scoring contest for both teams that typically both average over 65 points per game. Ball State cut the game close yet again but came out on top after outscoring the Friars 18-10 in the final stanza.
Junior Oshlynn Brown led the Cardinals with 14 points and 14 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season and 23rd of her career. Samz also reached double digits with 13 points while also adding five assists.
As the game came down to the wire for the Cardinals in their second-straight contest, freshman Sydney Freeman revived BSU again after she knocked down a crucial 3-pointer with 4:28 left on the clock, giving Ball State the 45-44 lead for the first time since the start of the contest. Providence then drew some fouls that would put the Friars back up by four (51-47) with under two minutes left in the game.
Ball State's defense then held Providence off the remainder of the way to give them the possession with 22 seconds left. After Samz got open on the right, she drained her third 3-pointer of the game that eventually resulted in BSU's win.
