Women's Basketball February 14, 2010 ISU Athletics

No Comeback in the Cards for Shockers This Time Against Indiana State

Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Indiana State erased its memory of a Wichita State comeback in the season's previous meeting by building and maintaining a large advantage for the most of the Sycamores' 81-59 MVC home court victory over the Shockers in front of 3,267 fans at Hulman Center.

ISU broke a four-game losing streak to improve to 12-11, 3-9 MVC while the Shockers fell to 16-7, 8-4 MVC.

ISU's 81 points in the contest are a new season-high for the Sycamores, topping their 80-point production earlier this season at USC Upstate.

ISU was paced with 24 points from Kelsey Luna, her season-best point total in league play this season. Deja Mattox joined Luna in double figures scoring with 11 points. Brittany Schoen hit a pair of second half 3-pointers and was 2-of-2 from the free throw line to score 11 as well.

Luna hit two 3-pointers in the contest, becoming just the second Sycamore in the history of the program to connect on at least 250 career 3-pointers.

The Sycamores shot a season-high tying 51.1 percent from the field, hitting 24-of-47 field goal attempts. The ISU defense limited the Shockers to just 18-of-53 shooting and Wichita was only 1-of-12 from long distance, hitting only 8.3 percent.

The Shockers got 16 points from Sheena Johnson and 13 from Chynna Turner as well as 11 from Jazimen Gordan off the bench.

Wichita State cut the Sycamores' 17-point lead down to 43-27 on a jumper by Sheena Johnson less than a minute into the second half, but just as she did to start the contest, Brittany Schoen connected on an early 3-pointer to stretch the ISU cushion out to 46-29 with 19 minutes to go. The Shockers countered with a basket, but the Sycamores answered with a charity toss as well as a fast break lay-up from Taylor Whitley to make it 49-29.

Leading 50-32 with 17 minutes left in the game, ISU got a 3-pointer from Luna that sparked a 9-2 run that found the Sycamores holding a 59-34 advantage as the clock ticked under 14 minutes remaining.

WSU proved it would not go away, as the Shockers scored the game's next eight points to cut into the Sycamore lead, 59-42 with 12:23 remaining. With thoughts of the Shockers' 20-point comeback at Charles Koch Arena, fresh in their mind from last month, the Sycamores made sure that would not happen by rattling off a 10-0 run to take their largest advantage of the game, 69-42 with nine and a half minutes to go.

The Shockers were able to work the ISU lead back down to 71-53, but Schoen hit her third 3-pointer of the contest to go up 74-53 with four minutes remaining.

Indiana State opened the contest on an inspired 7-0 run, which was kick-started by a wide-open 3-pointer from sophomore Brittany Schoen just 21 seconds on the contest. Taylor Whitley followed that up with a driving lay-up and Kelsie Cooley hit a jumper as part of ISU's quick start.

A triple by Jessica Diamond knotted the score at nine with 14:32 remaining before the break. Wichita took a 13-12 lead on a jumper by Michelle Price two minutes later and the Shockers went on a three minute dry spell during which the Sycamores scored nine consecutive points. Kelsey Luna gave ISU a lead at 14-13, before a pair of free throws by Deja Mattox ran the Sycamore advantage to 21-13.

WSU got a lay-up by Chynna Turner to cut the ISU lead down to 21-15 with 8:49 to go, but the Sycamores got back-to-back triples from Mattox and Luna to race out to a 27-15 lead with 7:48 remaining in the first half.

ISU held the Shockers without a field goal from the 8:49 mark until a jumper by Haleigh Lankster fell with 2:44 remaining, breaking a six minute field goal drought. During the same time, ISU outscored the Shockers 17-2 and led 38-17 - the Sycamores' largest lead of the first half.

Luna posted a bucket with 27 seconds left in the opening stanza to take a 42-23 lead before Wichita closed with two free throws as both teams entered the locker room with ISU holding a 42-25 advantage.

ISU was paced at the half with Luna's 13 points while Mattox scored 11. The Sycamores hit 16-of-27 shots from the field (59.3 percent) while the Shockers were limited to a 9-of-27 mark from the field, including a mark of 1-of-7 from 3-point range. Indiana State connected on 6-of-13 attempts from long range (46.2 percent).

Indiana State takes to the Valley road on Thursday, February 18 when the Sycamores travel to Southern Illinois. Tipoff is slated for 8:05 p.m. (ET) and will be carried live on The Crock 92.7FM as well as online at GoSycamores.com.