In their final game of the regular season, the Crimson and Gold’s women’s basketball team secured a victory over Western Illinois. The game was the teams’ second meeting of the season, with the first ending in a loss for Denver. Payback was doled out in due fashion with a 43-point first half, leading to a 77-55 DU win, their largest in Summit League play in two years.

After a nail-biter second-half comeback against St. Thomas, 66-63, where Denver achieved its best shooting percentage in over a month (47.9% from the field), DU harnessed the momentum from the gate. The win is the second against Western Illinois of the weekend, with DU men’s basketball similarly turning the tables on the team that beat them in a previous meeting this year.

In the first quarter, led by performances from senior Anna Jackson (Flower Mound, Texas) and junior Uju Ezeudu (Reynoldsburg, Ohio), scoring eight and five, respectively, DU ran to an early lead. Junior Meghan Boyd (Eagle, Idaho) and sophomore Emily Counsel (Perth, Australia) combined for a collective six at three apiece. The Crimson and Gold’s defense would hold Western Illinois’s scoring to a mere 14 while going 4-for-5 on three-pointers to keep the pedal down. Denver’s lead at the end of the quarter was 10.

The defensive performance would continue into the second quarter, with DU keeping the ball out of the net all but three times, restricting the opponent to eight points. With Western Illinois’s offense stalled by a strong defensive front, DU expanded their lead. Junior Makayla Minett (Chicago, Ill) joined the conversation with four points, and Boyd sank two from beyond the arc securing double-figure scoring by the 20-minute mark.

Outscoring the opponent once again, DU rounded out the third quarter with a lead of 32, nearly doubling Western Illinois’s 34 points. At one point going on a 9-0 run, DU was strong from inside and outside of the arc, achieving a 66.67% shot percentage on each, 8 for 12 on field goals and 2-for-3 on three-pointers. Western Illinois could not get DU’s long-range defense to budge, going 0-for-5 from the arc.

The visiting team gained some ground in the fourth quarter, outscoring DU for the first time of the night, but the effort came too little and too late. DU clinched the win, their bench outscoring Western Illinois’s 40-10. Boyd led the charge, coming off the bench to score 18 points and top the statistical category, followed by Counsel (11 pts) and Jackson (10 pts).

Ezeudu led DU for blocks, steals and rebounds, keeping Western Illinois to one second-chance point as opposed to Denver’s fourteen. Graduate Indeya Sanders (Reston, Va.) led the way in assists, earning 5 of the team’s 16.

The outing was also Senior Night, where the team celebrated seniors Anna Jackson and Tsimba Maonga (Bolingbrook, Ill.).

DU’s next outing is in Sioux Falls, S.D., for the Summit League Women’s Basketball Championship on March 5, where, after Saturday’s win, DU will be the eighth seed.