UIS women’s basketball fell short last week as they lost both home games. While UIS dominated both games, luck was not in their favor.
Missouri S&T
On Feb. 14, UIS played Missouri S&T. The Prairie Stars controlled the first half of the game, and came out on fire with a 13-2 lead against the Miners. As the first half came to an end, UIS held on to a 10-point lead with Alyssa Palmer having 11 points and four assists and Meredith Marti with 9 points.
As the second half began, Missouri S&T started with a 7-0 run. Although UIS pursued back with an 8-point lead with 13 minutes to go, the Stars could not hold on to the lead, which was for the first time throughout the whole game.
With three minutes left, Missouri S&T pushed forward and defeated UIS 57-63.
“I felt like the team worked well together the first half. We got off to a great start and lead pretty much all of the half. The focus and effort was really there. But the second half we let Missouri S&T back in the game. Our intensity level dropped tremendously when they made a run and we lost our competitiveness,” Palmer said.
Drury
Despite the unfortunate loss on Thursday, UIS was more than eager to come back Saturday and face the Drury Panthers at home. As the first half started, UIS dominated Drury; starting off strong with 7 points.
While UIS started strong, the Panthers battled back and came within 2 points of UIS. UIS controlled the first half. During the first half Alyssa Palmer led the team with 9 points.
With the beginning of the second half, UIS came out controlling the game, with a lead of 17 points. However, with 14 minutes left on the clock, the tables changed and the Panthers had their first lead by 2 points.
As the second half dwindled, UIS fell short of the lead. With five minutes left, UIS was behind by 10 points. With an unfortunate turn in events, UIS battled on, not giving up hope against Drury.
As the final buzzer went off, UIS had an ill-fated loss against Drury, with a score of 56-59.
“I felt like our effort, focus, and competitiveness was high. We just couldn’t finish it out. I think we worked well together though. If there was more time left we would have definitely won that game. But we made some costly mistakes and gave up easy points. I felt that we competed hard against Drury and played our hearts out 36 of the 40 minutes,” Palmer said.
Overall, Palmer hopes the team’s efforts, communication, and competitiveness improves by the end of the season. “It’s definitely something we have struggled with the entire season. But I feel like we are gradually progressing. Also our mental toughness. We tend [to be] tired late in games and that when I feel our opponents make their run,” Palmer said.
UIS will be facing Maryville Thursday at home.
