CARLINVILLE, IL -- Blackburn College Women's Basketball was defeated by the Spalding University Golden Eagles in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic play, 65-45.

The Beavers were led by Freshman Kenadee Frey with 8 points, followed by Freshman Kailyn Kreup with 7 points of her own.  Senior Ashanti Jones led Blackburn in the assists category with 3, followed by Senior Aryanna Harris and Sophmore Zoe Mitchell that had 2 a piece. Sophmores Caidy Tuetken and Zoe Mitchell led the Beavers in rebounding with 6 rebounds of their own. Blackburn would lead the game in steals as they had 10, with Kreup leading the way with 3 steals and followed by Frey with 2 steals of her own.

Blackburn and Spalding came out at the start of the game neck to neck, as a jump shot by Golden Eagles Isis Rodgers gave Spalding a narrow lead to close off the 1st quarter, 13-10. In the 2nd quarter, the Golden Eagles began with a 16-5 run that with Riana Caldwell free throw gave them a 14-point lead, 29-15. Yet, Blackburn tried to climb back into it as a Caidy Tuetken three-point shot cut the lead to 11 to take the game into halftime with the score, 32-21. 

In the 2nd half, Spalding never looked back as they went in their biggest scoring run with 12 unanswered points that was capped at the 6:27 mark of the 3rd quarter with Caldwell layup. They also got their biggest lead in that quarter, as at the 1:39 mark Nicole Hollowell layup gave them a 29 point lead to make the score, 52-23. Blackburn would try to make a small run as they had 6-0 run in that half. Nevertheless, the Golden Eagles still ended up winning comfortably by the final score, 65-45.

Blackburn will visit SLIAC opponent, Westminster College on Saturday, January 27th at 1pm to play in their annual Coaches vs. Cancer game.