“Proud of this team!” said head coach Amy Eagan after winning her first post-season game at Lindenwood. “We had so many women show up tonight and make plays on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball. This team is not rewriting history, they are writing it and that’s pretty special!”
Mya Skoff was electric scoring a career-high 22 points for the Lions shooting 6-10 from the floor including three three-pointers. She also went 7-8 at the foul line while LU as a team went 17-20. Skoff was active on defense as well picking up a team-high four steals. Lindenwood had nine steals and a season-high seven blocks in the win.
Mykayla Cunningham off the bench led the Lions’ second unit scoring 15 points on 7-14 shooting. Lindenwood’s bench out-scored Western Illinois’ 31-0. Cunningham also had six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Gracie Kelsey (nine points) and Alyssa Nielsen (seven points) also contributed off the bench for Lindenwood.
Brooke Coffey was effective from the floor shooting 6-10 from the field on her way to 13 points and five rebounds. Ellie Brueggemann did a little of everything for the Lions scoring 12 points on 4-11 shooting while grabbing a career-high nine rebounds. She also had a team-high four assists and four blocks (career-high).
Lindenwood shot 50.0% from the floor on Friday while going 17-20 from the foul line. Western Illinois shot 45.9% from the floor including going 10-20 from three. Raegan McCowan for the Leathernecks scored 35 points on 13-27 FG. LU won the rebounding battled 38-29 while forcing WIU to 16 turnovers.
The Lion’s offense had a slow start to the game going 0-5 from the field before Justis Odom got on the score board with a foul shot. The Lions took their first lead in the first quarter at 8-7 after a and-one by Coffey.
The Leathernecks ended the quarter on a 10-2 run as the Lions ended the first quarter down 15-19. Coffey had an early seven points in the quarter but had two fouls which required her to sit all of the second quarter. LU shot 6-20 from the field while WIU went 4-8 from three.
Western Illinois stretched their lead out to nine points (26-17) with 8:12 left in the second quarter resulting in a Lindenwood timeout. A quick 8-0 run by the Lions cut the lead down to one after a Alyssa Nielsen layup.
Both teams traded blows to end the quarter, but the Lions still trailed by one at the break by a score of 37-36. Lindenwood shot 7-11 in the second quarter and went 6-7 at the foul line. Three Lions had seven points after 20 minutes of action including Nielsen off the bench. LU scored 20 of their 36 points in the paint.
The Lions came out of the locker room hot going on a 9-0 run to take an eight point lead with 7:53 left in the third. Cunningham and Skoff combined for 13 of Lindenwood’s 25 points in the quarter as they took a 61-60 lead into the fourth quarter. There was nine lead changes and four ties in the third quarter but the Lions still were ahead after shooting 11-20 from the field.
Skoff has two back-to-back threes to start the fourth quarter with just under seven minutes to play as the Lions led 69-64. After WIU cut the lead to three points, the Lions went on a 6-0 run to push their lead to nine points with 2:54 left to play. The Leathernecks made one final push with under two to play (77-73 LU) but the Lions ended the game on a 9-2 run as the capture their first OVC Tournament win.
