Griffins Win Season Opener over Illinois College

St. Louis-Sophomore Nicole Joerger's 17 points held off an Illinois College come-from-behind victory this afternoon. The Griffins led 29-22 at halftime, and held onto the win, even though the Lady Blues out-scored them in the second half 37-35.

Illinois College scored the first bucket of the game, which was also their only lead of the game. A combined eight missed shots later, junior forward Chelsey Freymuth finally broke the curse of the basket. Connecting on a jump shot, Freymuth tied the game 2-2 with 16:44 left in the first half. The Griffins would lead 18-8 with 6:27 to go, and 23-13 at the 3:24 minute mark. The Lady Blues would head into the locker room coming off a 9-6 run.

Fontbonne's largest lead of the second half was 10 (45-35) with just under 10 minutes remaining in the game. A 7-0 run from Illinios College tightened the game 45-42. A 50-48 lead and the Griffins would take off with an 8-0 scoring run, widening the gap with 10 once again with 4 minutes to go. The Lady Blues ran out of time, as they tried surging back with an 8-3 run to fall 64-59.

Brittany Burgess scored two game-highs tonight: 24 points and 16 rebounds. Burgess went 11-11 from the line, drained six jumpers and a trey. Hannah McGinnis and Emily Bystry scored 11 points apiece. McGinnis also recorded 13 rebounds. A team total 28 turnovers hurt the Lady Blues the most.

Behind Joerger and next to Freymuth was freshman Lauren Willis, scoring double digits in her college debut (11 points). Willis struggled at the line (2-12) but led the team with five steals and was 3-4 in field goals.

Fans will hopefully get to see Freymuth play a little more next Saturday as she mustered 11 points and 5 rebounds in only 14 minutes of play today. Freymuth got into foul trouble early, forcing the Griffins' bench to step up in her place.

Next Saturday's home game is scheduled against St. Mary of the Woods at 1pm.

Live video and stats will be available for every home game.