MACOMB, Ill. - Saule Kontautaite scored a game-high 17 points and Michelle Maher added 16 as Western Illinois cruised to a 73-54 Summit League victory over Fort Wayne on Thursday night (Feb. 28). The Leathernecks improved to 13-15 overall and 6-9 in the league, surpassing last year's win total.
Western gave up 80 points to the Mastodons in a loss back in December, losing by 31. The Leathernecks wasted no time taking charge of the game and putting that loss behind them.
Maher started the scoring with a 3-pointer as the Leathernecks scored the first six points. Fort Wayne (12-15, 8-7) cut it to one at 6-5 on Rachel Mauk's triple, but Western scored 10 straight. Jackie Rieger scored in the paint then Maher and Kontautaite followed with consecutive 3s. Michele Salvatori finished off the run with a basket.
Five of the team's first nine field goals were from 3-point range. Fort Wayne cut it to six, but Ashley Luke scored in the paint then on the next possession converted a three-point play to extend the lead back to 10 and that would be the closest that IPFW would get for the remainder of the game.
In the first half, Western shot 50 percent from beyond the arc while holding IPFW to 31 percent overall and just 3-of-15 from long range.
The lead grew to as many as 22 in the second half following a Charnelle Reed 3-pointer and driving basket by Rieger. Maher got a 3-pointer and basket later in the half, and both times extended the lead back to a game-high 22 points.
Hitting 11 3-pointers in the victory gave Western 214 this season, just one shy of the program's season record set last year. Kontautaite drained five 3-pointers, now with 63 this season - the second-highest total in the season records and four shy of her record she broke last year. The senior guard had her highest scoring output in 10 games, but scored in double-figures for the fourth straight time.
Maher moved into a tie for seventh among the season leaders with 53 from 3-point range, thanks to her four made in the game. She matched a career-high with seven rebounds to go with her 16 points while dishing out four assists.
Rieger added 11 points and five rebounds. Luke narrowly missed on her third straight double-double, tallying 12 points and nine rebounds.
"I thought today was a really good team win on the offensive end and on the defensive end. We beat a good team tonight. I think IPFW is really tough, they beat us by 30 [at their place], so I'm just really proud of our team," said head coach JD Gravina. "It was a statement to ourselves, that we can do this, we can play at a high level. They're a team that's beaten other good teams, they've already wrapped up the four seed. [It] tells us that we can build this momentum and we can be dangerous in the conference tournament."
While the offense was clicking, Rebecca Henricson and the Leatherneck defense held Amanda Hyde to seven points below her Summit League-leading 19.2 points per game, finishing with 12 on 4-of-12 field goal shooting. Stefanie Mauk led IPFW with 16 points, joining Hyde in double-figures.
Western shot 45.8 percent from the field and held a 43-32 edge in rebounds. The Mastodons shot 32.7 percent from the field and went 7-of-31 from 3-point range.
The Leathernecks close out the regular season on Saturday (March 2), playing host to Oakland. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. and the program will honor the five seniors.
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