Maddy Greeling helps guide SIUE women past Utah Valley to tourney championship game

Eric Hess

Dec 3, 2016 7:50 AM

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USAFA, Colo – SIUE women's basketball defeated Utah Valley 71-64 Friday and has earned a spot in the championship game of the Air Force Classic.

SIUE, 2-4, will face either Vanderbilt or host Air Force in Saturday's title game at 4:30 p.m. CT. Vanderbilt and Air Force face off later tonight.

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The Cougars turned in their best shooting performance from the field in defeating the Wolverines of the Western Athletic Conference. SIUE shot 55.3 percent (26-47) from the field and an astounding 72.7 percent from three-point range (8-11).

"I was pleased with how well we shot the ball, said SIUE Head Coach Paula Buscher.

Utah Valley, 1-7, came back from being down six points at halftime and took the lead 39-38 with 4:26 to play on a three-pointer by Keana Delos Santo and advanced it to a three-point lead on a bucket by Sam Lubcke.

The Cougars answered in force with three straight three-pointers with one from Maddy Greeling, who scored a season-high nine points, and two treys from White. That put the Cougars up 47-41 with 2:37 left in the third period. SIUE wouldn't relinquish the lead from there.

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"They made a push on us, and we shared the ball well I thought and got some big threes," said Buscher. "We certainly didn't take a lot of threes, but we made a lot of them."

SIUE's bench outscored Utah Valley's bench 28-8.

"Maddy gave us a spark, and Cloe Churchill got in and also gave us a spark," added Buscher.

Lauren White led the way for SIUE with 17 points, including hitting all three of her three-point attempts.

Donshel Beck finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field. Micah Jones collected 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

Taylor Gordon starred for the Wolverines with 16 points and seven rebounds. Utah Valley shot 41.1 percent (23-56) from the field. The Wolverines made the same number of three-pointers as the Cougars but took 25 for the game.

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