Purdue Fort Wayne
Western Illinois
Mastodons Dismantle Westerwinds
1/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2008
Macomb, IL - The IPFW Mastodons dominated the top team in The Summit League on their own floor Monday night in Macomb, Illinois. The 'Dons soundly defeated the Western Illinois Westerwinds, 69-57.
IPFW got 23 points from The Summit League's leading scorer, senior Johnna Lewis-Carlisle and a career-high 17 points from senior forward Natalie Roberts to hand the Westerwinds only their second conference loss of the season (7-2).
The Mastodons started scoring as soon as they got off the bus. IPFW hit seven of their first eight shots in the game to take an 18-6 lead.
The hits just kept on coming for the Mastodons as Roberts and Lewis-Carlisle worked the inside-outside game.
Roberts got a bucket inside at the 11:01 mark to give IPFW a 25-8 lead.
Lewis-Carlisle stole a pass and went coast-to-coast for a layup, pushing the 'Dons lead to 23.
Freshman guard Sarah Haluska gave IPFW its largest lead in the half, 40-14, with a triple from the left side.
Western Illinois senior forward Stephanie Loving finished off a modest 6-0 run for the Westerwinds with a layup to cut the Mastodons lead to 40-20 at the break.
Lewis-Carlisle, the nation's 19th leading scorer, scored IPFW's first six points of the second half, keeping WIU at an arm's length.
But, at the eight minute mark, the Westerwinds mounted a comeback.
Junior guard Sarah Miller knocked down a couple of jumpers and just like that, Western had cut the IPFW lead to 12.
IPFW responded with a 12-2 run over the next two minutes as Roberts and Lewis-Carlisle scored on driving layups and freshman guard Jordan Zuppe dialed one up from 3-point land, pushing the IPFW lead back to 22 points.
With the game's outcome decided, both teams substituted generously and the 'Don won by the final of 69-57.
Lewis-Carlisle's 23 was game high. She also finished with four rebounds, six assists, and four steals.
Roberts career-high 17 included a perfect 7-7 from the foul line. She led IPFW with seven rebounds.
Sophomore guard Courtney Reed tossed in nine points on 3-5 shooting, all from behind the arc, and Zuppe finished with seven.
IPFW was a perfect 9-9 from the foul line.
Western Illinois (9-11, 7-2) was led by Lovingood's double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds. Miller added 10.
With the win, IPFW improves to an identical 9-11 and 6-3 in The Summit League.
The 'Dons are now tied with Oakland in third place. Western Illinois falls into a first place tie with South Dakota State.
The Mastodons return to action on Saturday afternoon, hosting North Dakota State for "Pink Out" an event to celebrate survivors of Breast Cancer and to support Breast Cancer Research. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. at the Memorial Coliseum.
For more information on "Pink Out", log on to www.gomastodons.com and click on the "Pink Out" logo!
~Dons~
