W-Basketball: #1 seed Golden Eagles win barn-burner over host team and #4 seed Milwaukee
Milwaukee Tech always plays well on their home court. Head Coach
Misty Opat and the Rock Valley College women's basketball team knew that going into Friday's Region IV semi-final battle vs. the Stormers. RVC lost in Milwaukee on January 9th but turned around and dismantled the Stormers on February 2nd in Rockford by a score of 68-50. On Friday night it was a battle to the end with the host school but the Golden Eagles prevailed with a 59-56 victory to book their ticket to the Region Championship game on Sunday vs. Madison College.
(
Misty Opat,
Tierra McGowan,
Asia Jones - RVC Athletics)
Milwaukee led 31-25 at halftime but RVC outscored the Stormers 19-12 in the 3rd quarter and 15-13 in the final period to secure the win. Rock Valley was led by
Brianna Davis (Rockford, IL) with 18 points though she struggled from the field shooting 6-25 (.240).
Tierra McGowan (Chicago, IL) had the best all-around game for the Golden Eagles posting 9 points, 17 rebounds, and 5 blocked shots in only 19:55 of action as she battled through foul trouble.
Jaycee Cleaver (Davis, IL) chipped in with 8 points and added 4 rebounds and a game-high 3 steals.
Asia Jones (Chicago, IL) hauled in 13 rebounds on the night.
"We didn't shoot the ball well tonight but we defended the perimeter very well," head coach
Misty Opat stated referencing her team's 18-66 (.273) shooting performance and Milwaukee 1-10 (.100) clip from behind the arch on the game. "Additionally, we allowed ourselves 26 second chance opportunities because of crashing the glass on the offensive end. Tierra and Asia were huge for us."
(Tierra) McGowan and (Asia) Jones combined for 17 of Rock Valley's 26 offensive rebounds. RVC also forced 21 Milwaukee turnovers and only turned it over 16 teams as a team.
The Golden Eagles will play Madison College on Sunday in Milwaukee for the Region IV Championship. Game-time is scheduled for 1:00 PM at Alverno College.
