Posted: Nov 24, 2024
#1 Kirkwood Soars Past #17 Rock Valley
Cedar Rapids, IA-
Kirkwood 71
Rock Valley 45
"Defend & Rebound!" is a motto that has helped the Kirkwood women's basketball program experience an enormous amount of success during head coach Kim Muhl's tenure.
Saturday's 71-45 victory over #17 Rock Valley was a testament to that philosophy for the Eagles.
Kirkwood (7-0) scored the first five points of the game to take a 5-0 lead, however, Rock Valley would roll off 10 straight points to take a 10-5 lead with 4:01 left in the first quarter.
The Eagle's offensive woes continued throughout the first quarter, but their defense kept them in the game, as Rock Valley would lead 12-7 after a quarter of play.
Rock Valley managed to take their largest lead of the game at 18-7 with 6:39 left in the half.
That's when the light finally turned on for Kirkwood's offense though and it was led by sophomores Jariah Harris and Kayilah Sain.
Harris and Sain would lead a 19-3 run that helped Kirkwood take a 27-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
That run would continue in the second half, as Kirkwood held the Golden Eagles scoreless over the first 5:44 of the third quarter and took a 40-23 lead.
All in all, Kirkwood used a 33-5 run to turn their largest deficit of the season at 11 points into a 40-23 lead midway through the third quarter.
Sophomore Jenna Twedt caught fire after halftime, as she knocked down four three-pointers in the quarter to help increase Kirkwood's lead 51-32 after three-quarters of play.
Twedt would go on to lead the Eagles in scoring with 23 points (7-13 from three).
Sophomore Lizzy Puot would finish with 18 points, 16 coming after halftime, and eight rebounds.
Sain also finished in double figures with 12 points and Harris added six points and led the Eagles in rebounding with nine boards.
The Eagles managed to hold Rock Valley to a season-low 45 points and held them to 30.8% from the floor, including 2-22 from three-point range.
Kirkwood also won the battle on the boards 38-28.
That was a huge emphasis coming into the game, as Rock Valley was outrebounding their opponents by 13 rebounds per game coming into the game.
Kirkwood will now enter ICCAC play next Saturday, as they travel west on I-80 to take on Iowa Western in Council Bluffs at 1:00 pm.
