EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville women's basketball scurried to a double-digit lead early and did not look back in an 86-47 victory over North Central in an exhibition contest Saturday at the Vadalabene Center.

SIUE took advantage of the Cardinals by scoring the first 13 points of the game. SIUE had as much as a 25-point lead in the first half before building a even more sizeable lead in the second half.

Cougars Head Coach Amanda Levens used her team's depth as all 11 players who entered the game scored at least one basket.

"I thought everybody that played contributed. We didn't drop off when we subbed as our bench did a great job for us," said Levens.

The Cougars picked up a game-high 18 points from Melia Duncan, who connected on 4 of 10 from three-point range. Raven Berry was solid with 15 points and eight rebounds. Madison Meade added 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

SIUE shot 47 percent from the field and converted 9 of 26 from beyond the arc. Levens said she was pleased with the quality of shots her team took.

"I think our shot selection was pretty good. We didn't take very many bad shots," Levens said.

Jackie Errico led North Central with 14 points. The Cardinals were hampered by 29 turnovers, 21 of which came off SIUE steals.

Levens said she saw a dropoff at the end of the first half as North Central briefly closed the gap to 44-26 at halftime. SIUE came out strong in the second half, doubling up the Cardinals 42-21 over the final 20 minutes.

"We shared the ball extremely well and we were very unselfish. We had a couple of times when we could have shot it and got a better shot than the one we didn't take," Levens said.

With just one official exhibition game, SIUE now must turn its focus to the regular season opener. The Cougars face Morgan State in a 5:30 p.m. game Friday at the Vadalabene Center.

"We need to worry about us and go into the game and do things that we are trying to focus on regardless of who we are playing," said Levens.

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