The IU Southeast women’s basketball team overcame a seven point halftime deficit to defeat IU Kokomo 55-51 on Thursday night in the Activities Building.

In the first half of play, IU Kokomo went on an 11-0 run early on.

The Grenadiers did comeback to take the lead with about three minutes left in the first half, however the Cougars were able to end the half with a 32-25 lead.

IU Kokomo shot 52% from the field, while the Grenadiers shot 31% from the field in the first half. The Cougars also outrebounded the Grenadiers 23-16 at the end of the half.

Down 41-29 early in the second half, the Grenadiers went on a 14-0 run with six of those points coming from junior forward, Mary Dye, who hit a three-pointer from behind the arc and then scored three points the old fashion way.

The Cougars would make things interesting toward the end by hitting a three-pointer with under two minutes left to tie the game at 51.

The Grenadiers then locked down defensively with freshman forward, Riley Kaiser, getting a steal and Dye scoring on the other end to give the Grenadiers a 53-51 lead with under one minute left.

Dye then came up with a big block defensively with 23 seconds left.

“I was just focused on not letting them score because the momentum would shift in their favor,” Dye said.

The Cougars were forced to foul to extend the game. They fouled Kaiser with six seconds left and she was able to make both free throws to seal the victory.

After the struggles defensively in the first half for the Grenadiers, head coach, Robin Farris, decided to change up the defense.

“We went with our match-up zone and it confused them, took them out of their rhythm, and we were challenging more shots,” said Farris.

The Grenadiers to held the Cougars to only 28% shooting in the second half.

Coach Farris also made some offensive adjustments that he thinks helped the offense to make more shots.

“We were really struggling to score against their zone,” Farris said. “Instead of going with our zone offense we went with our man-to-man offense and looked to penetrate off the dribble, kick it out, and penetrate again.”

After going 1/13 from three-point range in the first half, Dye says that the key in the second half was not taking as many three-pointers.

“We stopped taking open threes and worked the ball so that we could get more inside shots,” Dye said.

Dye led the Grenadiers with 18 points and 9 rebounds.

The Grenadiers improve to 14-6 overall and sit all alone in first place in the KIAC at 5-1.

The Grenadiers look to add on to their three game winning streak as they begin a three game road trip starting next Tuesday at 8 p.m. against IU East.

IU Southeast men snap 11 game losing streak

The Grenadiers won big over the IU Kokomo Cougars 77-62 Thursday night in the Activities building pushing their record to 4-13 overall and 1-5 in conference play.

They led by as much as 25 due in large part to the play of freshman guards, Jacob Mills and Joe Jackson. Both had career highs in points. Mills had 20 points and Jackson scored 17.

Senior guard, Jake Simpson had 19 points.

The Grenadiers shot 53% from the field going 31-59.

Their next game will be Tuesday at IU East. Tip off is scheduled for 6 p.m.