Nov. 21, 2008
Final Stats
Contact: Greg Murphy
MUNCIE, Ind. - Dominique Butler had her fourth career double-double with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to help Cleveland State earn a 64-50 victory over Illinois State in the consolation round of the Preseason WNIT on Friday night at Ball State's Worthen Arena.
Butler's 13 rebounds were one shy of her career high set on Feb. 20, 2006, at Wright State.
CSU improved to 2-1 this season, while the Redbirds fell to 0-2.
The Vikings will play Ball State on Saturday (Nov. 22) at 8:00 p.m. in the consolation finals of the Preseason WNIT, while ISU will play Robert Morris at 5:30 p.m. at Ball State.
Ball State knocked off RMU in Friday's other consolation game.
Jessica Roque scored a game-high 17 points for CSU, connecting on 6-of-10 shots from the field, including 3-of-6 from three-point, while Shawnita Garland added 14 points, five rebounds and four steals off the bench.
Garland didn't miss a shot all night, connecting on all five of her field goal attempts, including both three-pointers, and a pair of free throws for her 14 points.
Destinee Blue chipped in six points and three rebounds in 10 minutes off the bench, while Stephaine Crosley grabbed a team-high eight rebounds for the Vikings, who outrebounded ISU, 43-35.
"This was a great win for us against a team that was picked to win the Missouri Valley Conference this season," head coach Kate Peterson Abiad said. "I thought we played well on defense and did a nice job defending their sets.
"Shawnita was a stud tonight and Jess hit some big shots for us. Dom played another great game for us and is really playing like a senior should. She has really picked up her game early on this season."
The Vikings, who entered the game shooting .565 (52-92) from the field this season, did nothing to hurt that stat as CSU hit its first six shots to take a 13-6 lead less than four minutes in.
Angel Roque did most of the damage with a pair of three-pointers, while Jessica Roque added a traditional three-point play.
A Nicolle Lewis layup with 7:49 left sliced CSU's lead to 19-18, but CSU scored eight straight points, including four from Blue, to regain a nine point lead (27-18) with five minutes to play in the first half.
The Vikings led at halftime, 29-22.
ISU was able to keep the game close in the first part of the second half, cutting the lead to six points (35-29) on a three-pointer by Kristi Cirone. However, a Crosley layup, a three-pointer from Jessica Roque and layup from Garland extended CSU's lead back to 13 points (41-29) with 11:49 to play.
Another Jessica Roque three-pointer with 6:12 to play gave CSU its biggest lead of the night (53-36) and the Vikings withstood a late 13-4 run by hitting 7-of-10 free throws down the stretch to ice the win.
