CHICAGO, Ill. – Southeast Missouri Women's Basketball (1-2) fell to Missouri Valley Conference-member Illinois-Chicago (3-1) in a hard-fought contest on Friday night at Credit Union 1 Arena by a final score of 87-74.
Junior guard
Jaliyah Green led the Redhawks with 15 points on 5-of-16 shooting, including 2-for-6 from three and a perfect 3-for-3 from the charity stripe in 34:50 of game time.
Four Redhawks, including Green, finished in double-digit points in Friday's contest as guards
Kiyley Flowers and
Indiya Bowen finished with 10 apiece. Forward
Amiyah Buchanan dropped in 11 points as SEMO's second highest scorer.
As a team, the Redhawks shot 42-percent from the floor (28-67) while UIC finished at a 54-percent mark (29-54). SEMO was outrebounded 39-30 and had two more turnovers than UIC (17-15).
SEMO did damage in the paint, scoring nearly half of their points in the contest from inside the lane (36) and converted 14 fast break opportunities into 11 points.
The game started tied at 2 after forward
Julia Sion scored the first basket of the game for the Redhawks off a beautiful assist from guard
Daejah Richmond.
The Flames went on a 10-2 run over the next three-minutes of game time as they built a 10-point lead into the game's first media timeout.
Freshman
Indiya Bowen created a spark off the bench to trim the Flames' first quarter lead to just eight at the quarter break. Bowen finished the quarter with five points including a nice three-point shot to get the Redhawks to within 10.
Nearing the end of the quarter,
Jaliyah Green drove the length of the court to get a nice look at the rim. Her layup missed but forward
Amiyah Buchanan was there to scoop up the offensive board for a 25-17 first quarter score.
UIC started the second quarter with a three-point jumper by guard Jaida McCloud, but her three was answered by Green who converted a basket plus the foul on the other end off an assist from
Alecia Doyle.
The Redhawks would cut into the deficit with an Abby Stephens lay-up, her first points of the contest, as SEMO trailed by its smallest deficit since the nine-minute mark in the first quarter (8).
SEMO would not go quietly. Falling behind by as much as 15, the Redhawks rattled off a 10-0 run beginning at the 3:54 mark in the second quarter.
Guard
Megan Barton rattled in a shot-clock beating three, followed by an
Amiyah Buchanan and-one got the Redhawks to within seven at the 2:13-mark.
Barton would score her seventh point on a nice pull-up jumper to get the Redhawks to within five with 1:43 left in the half.
At the half, SEMO trailed 44-38 shooting 36-percent from the field (15-41) and just 16.7-percent from three (2-12). SEMO was led in scoring by three Redhawks as guards
Indiya Bowen and
Megan Barton plus forward
Amiyah Buchanan all finished the first 20-minutes with seven points.
Out of the break, SEMO scored its first point of the half via an
Alecia Doyle free throw, but the Redhawks hit a four-minute-long scoring draught as the Flames built a 12-point lead midway through the third.
Much like the first half, SEMO fought back. Out of the media break,
Jaliyah Green hit a corner three, and a
Kiyley Flowers free throw to spark a quick 4-0 Redhawks run.
Trailing by 12 after a pair of Flames' free throws, the Redhawks would go on another 4-0 run via free throws from Richmond and a nice baseline drive by
Alecia Doyle to get the Redhawks to an eight-point deficit.
SEMO began the fourth quarter with a
Kiyley Flowers three-pointer to trim the UIC lead to 14 at the 9:49-mark as the Redhawks shot a game-high 84.6-percent from the floor in the final quarter.
Two quick
Kiyley Flowers layups on back-to-back Redhawks possessions pulled SEMO to within nine with just 4:27 left. The Redhawks outscored UIC in the fourth quarter, 25-21, but it wasn't enough as the Flames held on for a 13-point victory.
SEMO will be back in action on Sunday, Nov. 19, when they take on Big 10-member Northwestern. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., CT. in Evanston, Ill.