On a warm winter afternoon in Carlinville, Illinois, on February 6th, the Blackburn Women's Basketball team lost their twelfth conference game of the year by a score of 57-46. Blackburn came in facing the Principia Panthers who had just come off of a huge win over MacMurray College last week. Blackburn started the game trailing early at the end of the first quarter by a score of 14-8. Halle Engel buried two three pointers in the second quarter to cut the deficit to just seven, 30-23. Principia used great third quarter defense to slow down the Beavers, holding Blackburn to just six points in the third quarter. The Beavers came out in the fourth quarter firing and brought the game back to a a six point deficit, but the Beavers eventually ran out of time as they were forced to foul to try and get back into the contest.
Leading the way for the Beavers was Candace Pollock who scored 13 points. She was the only Beaver in double figures. Danae Smith led the Beavers in rebounding with eleven boards, and Aleisha Stiltner led the Beavers in assists with four assists. The Beavers shot 29.5% from the field, 38.6% from three point land and shot 60.0% from the free throw line. The Beavers as a team grabbed 40 rebounds and committed 21 turnovers.
Leading the way for the Panthers was Kara Johnson who had a game-high 31 points. Johnson also grabbed eleven rebounds. Also, scoring in double digits for the Panthers was Rachel Perea, who had 13. Perea also added 13 rebounds and had a team high six assists. The Panthers shot 35.1% from the field, 20.0% from three point land, and 66.7% from the charity stripe. The Panthers grabbed 46 team rebounds and committed 17 turnovers as a team.
The Beavers next game with be on Wednesday, February 10th in Carlinville against Westminster College, with the tip-off set for 6 pm.