Spalding’s Win Streak Snapped on the Road

The Spalding University Golden Eagles Women’s Basketball Team traveled to Illinois on Saturday, January 25, to try to put together a six game win streak.  The Golden Eagles have been playing solid basketball over the past few weeks, but they would fall short to MacMurray College.

Spalding played very hard in the first half, but was never able to gain the lead.  The Golden Eagles never let the MacMurray lead get out of reach.  Although MacMurray had built the lead to twelve points with four minutes to play in the first half, Spalding did not panic.  The Golden Eagles were able to put some shots together and cut the lead down to six before the half was finished.  Nine of the Spalding players were able to score in the first half.  Kelly Harrod would lead the team with 8 points.

The Golden Eagles would battle hard to start the second half.  They were able to take and make some quality shots.  They were trimming in to the MacMurray lead and five minutes into the second half they were able to take the lead.  After Spalding took their first lead, it was a back and forth game.  Spalding held the lead for about two minutes before MacMurray took it back.  Spalding would then take the lead back and build the lead to five.  It was then that MacMurray would put together a run that would take the momentum and the game away from Spalding.  With Spalding up five with 9 ½ minutes to play, MacMurray put together a 15-3 run over the next 5 minutes.  Spalding found themselves down by seven with under five minutes to play in the game.  Coach Charlie Just said, “We got the wind knocked out of us when they went on that run.  They seemed to steal all of our momentum and we just couldn’t recover.  We played hard, but we could not get it going again after that.”  Spalding would battle for the rest of the game, but the damage was done.  MacMurray was able to build their lead to 12 and would eventually end up winning the game by eleven with the final score being Spalding 82 and MacMurray 93.  Kelly Harrod finished the game with 20 points and 7 rebounds, and Lauren Reed put up 12 points and 5 rebounds.  The story for MacMurray was Ashley Will and Taylor Vollmer who combined for 46 points and 25 rebounds.

Spalding’s next game will be played on the road at Principia on Monday, January 25.  They will not play their next home game until February 6, where they will face MacMurray again.