 Billikens Fly Past Akron 85-58
Nov. 10, 2006
St. Louis - Using a 12-0 run late in the first half, the Saint Louis women's basketball team opened the 2006-07 campaign with an 85-58 victory over Akron at Bauman-Eberhardt Center on Friday evening. Billiken freshmen keyed the victory as the six first-year players combined to pour in 66 points. "What a great debut for the freshman, and an even better start for our seniors in their final year," Billiken head coach Shimmy Gray-Miller said. "I'm most proud of the way we closed out the first half with such a strong run. That momentum carried us into the second half. Those runs showed the true character of this team." Senior Tyler McIlwraith drilled a 3-pointer two minutes in to give the Billikens the early lead. The game was tied at 6-6 before Katie Paganelli sank two free throws, and McIlwraith sank a long trey from the left wing for an 11-6 lead. The Zips closed to 13-12, but freshmen forwards Amy Klotz and Amy Vickroy scored on consecutive layups for a 17-12 Billiken advantage. The Bills led 24-18 on a Paganelli basket, but the Zips scored five straight to cut the gap to one with 5:09 left in the first half. The Billikens scored 12 straight points run late in the half to push the Billikens to a 41-29 lead at intermission. The Billikens held a narrow 29-27 lead with 3:02 remaining, but a layup by Amanda Kemezys ignited the run. Theresa Lisch registered a steal and cruised in for an easy basket. She stole the inbounds pass and sank another short jumper for a 33-27 lead. As Akron cross the midcourt line, Rachel Diener intercepted a pass and glided in for another uncontested bucket. Lisch notched another steal and was fouled. She sank both charity tosses to build a double-digit lead. Lisch then registered the fifth straight SLU steal, sank the basket as the Zips were called for an intentional foul. She sank both free throws to close out a 12-0 run. Akron finally got a shot off at the buzzer to end the SLU run. Lisch was tremendous late and finished with 13 points and four steals in the opening stanza. She sank all six of her free throw attempts as the Billikens converted on 12-of-13 from the charity stripe.
Kemezys converted down low to restore the Billiken lead to 14 at 43-29. Akron tallied six of the next seven points to trim the deficit to single-digits at 44-35 with 17:18 left in the game. However, Paganelli converted a long jumper, and Maggie Hennegan made one of two free throws. A layup by Paganelli off a pass from Lisch pushed the Billikens' advantage back to 14 at 49-35 with just under 16 minutes to play. The Billikens never let the lead slip below 10 and were still up by 11 when they sealed the win with a 19-4 run. Jackie Gilber hit a jumper to ignite the outburst, and after one Akron free throw, Paganelli hit back-to-back 3-pointers. McIlwraith's driving layup pushed the mark to 70-51. Then, Paganelli and Kemezys scored on consecutive possessions to push the Billiken lead to 74-53 with 5:41 left. The advantage grew to as much as 27 and the Billikens eased to the victory. Freshman Katie Paganelli poured in a game-high 21 points, including 15 points on six-of-six shooting in the second half. Freshman Amanda Kemezys (Belleville East) hit all eight of her field goal attempts en route to 18 points. Freshman Theresa Lisch enjoyed a tremendous all-around outing. She hit 11 of 12 free throws to also finish with 18 points, handed out a game-high six assists to go along with six steals. Senior Tyler McIlwraith added 11 points. Sarah Tokodi led Akron (0-1) with 15 points, while Niki McCoy chipped in 14. The Billikens (1-0) blazed the nets in the second half, hitting 16 of 24 shots (66.7 percent) and shot 56.9 percent for the game. SLU registered 13 steals and forced the Zips into 23 turnovers. The 85 points by the Billikens are the most since the team scored 86 against UAB on Jan. 25, 2004. |
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