ELSAH, Ill. – The Eureka College women's basketball team avenged an early-season loss to Principia and stretched its road winning streak to seven games in the process, cruising to an 83-44 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over the Panthers, Saturday afternoon at Hay Field House in Elsah, Ill.

The Red Devils (13-3, 7-2 SLIAC) quickly took charge of the contest, opening up a 14-4 lead in the first 5-minutes, 6-seconds of the game behind baskets from five different players.  The Panthers were able to cut their lead below double-digits, 18-9, after a basket from McKenzie Wilgus at the 10:29 mark, but the Red Devils answered with a 14-2 run to take their largest lead of the first half, 32-11. The visitors carried a 41-23 advantage into intermission. 

Eureka senior guard Sara Hamilton (Washington, Ill./Washington H.S./Illinois Central) led all scorers in the first half with 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting, as the Red Devils shot 52 percent (16-for-31) as a team in the first 20 minutes.

The second half brought more of the same for the Red Devils.  Eureka opened the half on a 16-2 run behind four points each from senior forward Lisa Byard (Morton, Ill./Morton H.S.) and sophomore guard Caty Eeten (Eureka, lll./Eureka H.S.) to lead 57-25 with 13:49 to play.  The visitors would go on to lead by as many as 41 points after sophomore guard Amanda Schreck (Monmouth, Ill./Monmouth-Roseville H.S.) hit her only basket of the game for a 77-36 cushion at the 3:45 mark.

Byard finished the game with a team-best eight rebounds to pass Raeanne Albin (1998-02) for sole possession of sixth place on Eureka's all-time rebounding list.  Byard now has 623 rebounds in her 90-game collegiate career and needs four more boards to match Tina Sharp (1992-96) for fifth place (627) on the all-time Eureka rankings.

Second-year head coach Taren Martin used all 16 of her healthy players for the second consecutive game.  Byard scored a season-high 13 points to share team-high honors with Hamilton and senior forward Khassandrae Brown (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria H.S./Kankakee).  The Red Devils shot 50 percent (30-for-60) from the field, held a 38-26 rebounding advantage and distributed 21 assists.  Eureka has now won three games in a row at Principia's Hay Field House.

Lindsay Sydness scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds to pace the Panthers (3-12, 2-6 SLIAC).  Principia, which shot 50 percent from the field in its December victory over the Red Devils at the Reagan Center, made only 29 percent (17-for-58) of its shots on Saturday to drop its eighth consecutive decision.

The Red Devils will shoot for their sixth straight win overall when MacMurray visits the Reagan Center on Wednesday at 6 p.m.