FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The No. 9-ranked Indiana Tech women's basketball team reached the 20-win mark for the sixth straight year Saturday afternoon as they defeated Madonna University 71-52 inside the Schaefer Center.
Erika Foy had a game-high 19 points to go along with 12 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season while
Kyra Whitaker also had 19 points on 6-9 shooting, including 3-4 from three-point range.
Alexis Hill had 12 points and eight rebounds while
Emma Tuominen and
Eileen Salisbury had eight points each.
The Warriors got off to a slow start as they went just 3-15 from the floor in the opening quarter and trailed the Crusaders most of the period. Madonna went just 4-18 from the floor, but took advantage of nine offensive rebounds and 18 in total to take hold an 11-9 lead over Tech at the end of the first.
The offense began to show up in the second quarter as the Warriors scored 24 points on 7-12 shooting and went 9-9 from the charity stripe as they took advantage of seven Crusader fouls. Madonna however, held the lead for most of the quarter. With Tech trailing 25-23 with 3:23 left in the first half, a pair of free throws from Whitaker started an 11-2 run for the hosts, with a pair of free throws from
Kelsey Ivers putting the hosts up 26-25 with 2:31 on the clock and Foy scoring the last five points of the half to give Tech a 33-27 lead at the break.
The Warriors put the clamps down on the Crusaders in the third as they held the visitors to just nine points on 4-15 shooting while putting up 20 points in 10 minutes of action. Whitaker had nine of the team's 20 points during the quarter, going 3-4 from the floor with a triple and two free throws. Madonna cut the deficit down to 37-33 with 6:36 left in the period, but Tech ended the quarter on a 16-3 run to take a 53-36 lead and were never threatened again as the Orange and Black won their ninth straight game.
Tech (20-1, 8-0 WHAC) returns to action on Wednesday, February 17 as they host Concordia University. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. from the Schaefer Center.
