IU East tops Asbury in KIAC Women's Basketball Game of the Week, 79-66
IU East tops Asbury in KIAC Women's Basketball Game of the Week, 79-66
Box Score
(Story by Franklin Crist -- IU East sports information)
RICHMOND, Ind. – In a clash of Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference divisional leaders, the visiting Eagles of Asbury University rolled into Richmond on Feb. 2 to take on Indiana University East in the KIAC Women's Basketball Game of the Week on Tuesday night.
A surging Red Wolf unit led throughout in a 79-66 victory at the Richmond High School Tiernan Center. IU East won its fifth consecutive game, the longest winning streak in the program's one-and-a-half seasons.
"We go out and just play," sophomore Keragan Niehoff (Rushville, Ind./Rushville Consolidated High School) commented following the win. "Our goal right now is to get home court advantage in the conference tournament, and the last few games have been big in helping us do that."
Big is right. The win allowed IU East (15-9, 10-2 KIAC) to maintain a one-game lead in the KIAC Colonial Division. Asbury (15-9, 11-2), which moved up to 27th in the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball Poll released just before tipoff, continues to lead the KIAC Capital Division.
IU East led by six after a closely-contested first quarter. The Red Wolves would proceed to blow the game open in the second quarter, pushing the spread to 17 points late in the first half.
"Obviously we rebounded very well," Niehoff said. "We've been playing some bigger teams here, and I think we are just used to having to do the same things in order to win now with us being so much smaller than everybody else. We got inside too on drives, and it just made everything on offense easier."
IU East attacked the rim for much of the contest, building its lead to 21 at one point. IU East would finish with more than half of its field goals in the painted area, totaling 42 points in the lane.
But as quickly as the lead grew, Asbury took a chunk of it away in the fourth quarter. The Eagles got within nine in the final minutes, but the Red Wolves held off the Asbury surge.
"I think a lot of them getting back in the game was actually rebounding," Niehoff said. "We stopped getting as many defensive rebounds, and they got lots of second and third chance tries. Rebounding was the whole key to the game."
The Red Wolves won the rebounding battle 46-40.
Niehoff tallied a double-double by the halftime and finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds. Tia King (Indianapolis, Ind./Warren Central High School), the No. 10 scorer in the NAIA's Division II, racked up 26 points.
Asbury's Catie Fletcher had a game-high 28 points. Brittany Warren added 13 for the Eagles.
IU East, which completed a stretch of five wins in 10 days, is idle for a week. The Red Wolves return to action Feb. 9 at Indiana University Southeast. Asbury's next game is also against IU Southeast, with that mathcup happening this Thursday, Feb. 4.
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