MACOMB – The Western Illinois women's basketball team hosted the Culver-Stockton Wildcats in its home opener Friday night (Nov. 8), which resulted in an 82-76 Leatherneck win.
Culver-Stockton hit Western hard early with a 7-0 lead. But it wasn’t a problem for the Fighting Leathernecks as they tied the game with a jumper from Freshman Mackenzie Rogers to make the score 11-11. The Wildcats were able to sustain the Leathernecks run and ended the first quarter up 17-14.
The game was really intense until Freshman Elizabeth Lutz hit a three-pointer for Western to put them up 27-26 with 5:26 remaining in the quarter. The three-pointer from Lutz sparked the team as that was the first lead for the Leathernecks all game.
During the third quarter is when the Leathernecks began to capitalize on the number of Wildcat turnovers. Junior Annabel Graettinger started a 15 point run to expand their lead exponentially. The Leathernecks ended up outscoring the Wildcats 32-19 in the third quarter alone. To open up the fourth quarter, Western went on another 10 point run to secure the win.
Players of the game from Western are Olivia Kaufman as she led the team with 20 points, Annabel Graettinger added 17 points, and Evan Zars led the team with eight rebounds. Western Illinois will continue their home stretch against Illinois-SpringfieldTuesday (Nov. 12).