By Evan Merrill 

Mt.  Carmel Register

MOUNT CARMEL -- No. 15 ranked Wabash Valley College used a second half surge to blitz past Rend Lake on Saturday, routing their conference foe 108-66.

The Lady Warriors (16-2) seemed to be somewhat surprised by Rend Lake early on, as the opposing Lady Warriors built an 8-4 advantage over WVC. Wabash Valley ended the quarter strong however, outscoring Rend Lake 23-6 in the waning minutes.

Wabash Valley's lead trickled into the teens as halftime neared, though they couldn't seem to fully put away Rend Lake, who trailed by 16 at the break. Sophomore forward KK White led all scorers with 15 points at the half, as Wabash Valley College Coach Lacey Shalenko eyed a mismatch White had in the post and attacked it time and time again.

One area for concern for Wabash Valley in the first half was the foul trouble to sophomore star Keya Patton, who was sidelined with three fouls. As Wabash Valley's go to scoring option, Patton provides a level of stability in the rotation when she's on the floor. In her stead they turned to freshman Soffia Rieckers and sophomore Krisen Hunt to provide valuable minutes.

"We don't like to end up in situations like that, but I do think it's good for us to encounter those," WVC Assistant Coach Deangela Mathis said. "Sometimes we can rely heavily on her -- Soffia did a really good job of stepping in and playing that role, keeping her composure. I think she played a big role in pushing us to win this game honestly."

Out of the break Wabash Valley had their eyes set on expanding their margin and responded with a 33-point third quarter to heighten their lead. WVC sophomore Monique Pruitt would score eight of Wabash Valley's final 14 points of the quarter as the lead ballooned to 84-55.

From then, the rout was on. The Lady Warriors cruised the rest of the way, demolishing Rend Lake in a statement victory over a formidable Great Rivers Athletic Conference foe, their 60th consecutive conference win in total.

"I thought we did a great job of pushing through. . . .," Mathis said. "We had a rough first quarter, it wasn't our best quarter but I think we did an overall good job of battling through those things. We made an adjustment in the second quarter and came out and handled business. I thought we did a good job."

The Lady Warriors were led in scoring by Hunt and Pruitt each scoring 23 points, though three other Lady Warriors also recorded double-figure point totals. Hunt's point total was a new career-high for the sophomore guard.

"Last year seeing Dazha and Marie play, see how they attacked and what they did and the different things," Hunt said. "I took from that and learned from that because they were very successful in what they did. I tried to add that to the things I want to do."

With the victory No. 15 Wabash Valley improved to 16-2 (8-0) and stretched their winning streak to nine games. They'll look to keep it rolling on Wednesday when they travel to face Olney Central College at 5:30 p.m.