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Women's
College Basketball
Hudson,
Lewis Lead Second-Half Comeback for Redbirds Against
Tennessee-Martin
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[November 19, 2007]
TAMPA, Fla. -- Senior guard
Tiffany Hudson and sophomore center Nicolle Lewis scored 29 points
in the second half as the Illinois State Redbirds (3-0) erased a
14-point deficit to defeat the Tennessee-Martin Skyhawks (2-1) 70-60
in the opening game of the USF Shootout on Saturday. Lewis and
Hudson scored 15 points during a 19-2 ISU run that turned the game
around early in the second half.
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 Hudson led the Redbirds with 18 points, her third consecutive game
in double figures. The last time she had double-digit points in
three straight games was in January 2006. Lewis scored a season-high
14 points, all in the second half, and also led the 'Birds with six
rebounds and one block. Freshman guard Shala Jackson added 15 points
on 6-for-10 shooting and had five rebounds and three assists. Junior
guard Kristi Cirone had 11 points and a game-high seven assists.
The Redbirds missed their first seven shots from the floor, and that
enabled Tennessee-Martin to build a 9-0 lead four minutes into the
game. Cirone hit a long-range jumper at the 15:20 mark to break the
ISU scoreless streak. Down by 10 at the 14-minute mark, ISU went on
an 11-4 run over the next 3:30 to pull within three, 18-15.
Foul trouble also plagued the Redbirds, who committed five fouls
before the Skyhawks had their first. Tennessee-Martin capitalized by
shooting 7-for-10 from the charity stripe in the first half. The
Redbirds shot just 10-for-29 (.345) in the first half, including
2-for-12 from 3-point range. Tennessee-Martin was 12-of-19 (.632)
from the field, and forward Crystal Fuller had 16 points for the
Skyhawks.
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Tennessee-Martin started the second half with five quick points
to take its biggest lead of the game, 38-24. ISU answered with 10
unanswered points to start the game-changing 19-2 run to take its
first lead, 43-40. Hudson made a pair of 3-pointers and Lewis
contributed nine points during that stretch, including seven
straight at one point.
After a 3-pointer by Jackson and a fast break layup by Cirone,
the Redbird lead reached double digits for the first time, 62-51,
with 4:24 left in the game. The Skyhawks tried to come back with a
9-3 spurt over the next three minutes to cut the deficit to 65-60.
It was Lewis and Hudson again who came up big for the Redbirds,
hitting a layup and a 3-pointer, respectively, to create the final
margin of 10 points.
The Redbirds' shooting was markedly better in the second half as
they went 17-for-28 (.607) from the field and 6-of-10 (.600) from
beyond the arc. Their defense help spur the turnaround as they
turned 13 Skyhawk turnovers in the second half into 19 points. They
also limited Fuller to just four points on 2-of-5 shooting.
Illinois State was scheduled to take on the host team, South
Florida, in the final game of the tournament on Sunday afternoon.
(See article.)
(Box
score)
[To download Adobe Acrobat Reader for
the PDF file, click
here.]
[Text from file received from Jimmy
Knodel,
assistant media relations director,
Illinois
State University] |
