NORMAL, Ill. – The University of Indianapolis women's basketball team hit the road and battled the Illinois State Redbirds in a season-opening exhibition match at the Redbird Arena on Tuesday night. The Redbirds came into the contest fresh off winning the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) tournament championship a year ago and walked out as winners in tonight's friendly by a final of 77-58.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Looking to make an impact early, the Hounds held strong with the Redbirds by corralling a 9-7 lead with just under six minutes to go in the opening period after a Liv Becker three-pointer found the bottom of the net. Despite ISU rolling out a 5-0 run after this to climb back out in front, UIndy weathered any Redbird storm in sight and went trailing by just one point into the second quarter.
 
Similar to the opening period, the Greyhounds held strong in the second quarter and only found themselves trailing by a score of 23-20 with a little over seven minutes remaining until the half. However, the difference maker came when Illinois State rolled out a crushing 10-1 scoring run through the last three minutes of play. Before this scoring outburst happened, UIndy only trailed by six points and now faced a 15-point deficit in front of the home crowd.
 
In the first half, UIndy shot just 36% from the field (9-25) and an ice-cold 2-10 from behind the arc. Illinois State on the other hand shot a red-hot 55.6% from the field (15-27). The Redbirds out-rebounded the Hounds by two through the opening half. Becker led UIndy with eight points.
 
The Redbirds continued to keep their foot on the pedal in the second half, notching another strong 11-3 scoring burst in the third quarter through the opening five minutes which eventually rolled over into a 23-point lead going into the fourth. Despite falling in the contest, UIndy successfully outscored Illinois State in the final quarter.  
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
-Idalis Ortiz led UIndy in the scoring column with her 10 points and five rebounds off the bench.
-Elana Wells added nine points on the night while Becker had eight points.
-The Hounds ended shooting just 32.1% from the field (17-53) and 15% from three-point land (3-20).
-UIndy collected 31 bench points to go along with 22 points in the paint.
-The Greyhounds were minus 10 in the turnover margin battle.
 
UP NEXT
The Hounds will finish their exhibition slate with a road game at Northern Kentucky on Friday night. Opening tip is set to begin at 7 p.m. ET.