The Illinois State women’s basketball team (15-8, 7-4) got back on the winning track on Friday defeating Drake at Redbird Arena after dropping two games on the road the previous weekend. The Redbirds returned to their home court again on Sunday, beating Creighton in the Play4Kay Pink Game benefiting women’s cancer research.

The Redbirds’ defense forced DU into 23 turnovers on the evening en route to an 81-57 victory for ISU over the Bulldogs.

“I thought our offense was fueled by our defense,” ISU head coach Stephanie Glance said. “To turn them over 23 times and score 27 points off of those turnovers was tremendous.”

Four double-digit scorers paced the Redbirds in scoring including senior guard Jamie Russell’s 16 points and a trio of sophomore forwards, Janae Smith (15 points), Brianna Puni (15 points) and Maddie Oliver (13 points). The ’Birds outshot DU on the evening, 59 percent to 38 percent.

“We were able to go inside even to our posts without penetration and score 48 points in the paint,” Glance said. “The points off of turnovers and points in the paint were the biggest difference in the game.”

With ISU and DU knotted up at 10 a little more than four minutes into the game, the Redbirds went on a 10-2 run to take a 20-12 lead with 11:29 left in the first half.

From there, ISU continued to outscore the Bulldogs with a 12-4 surge to go up, 32-16 with 8:21 until halftime. DU responded with an 8-0 run to close its deficit to 32-24, but ISU outscored the ’Dogs, 8-4 until halftime to take a 40-28 lead into the break.

The Redbirds scored the first 13 points of the second half to grab a 53-28 advantage with 14:30 remaining in the game. The Bulldogs outscored ISU, 16-7, to make it 60-44 with 8:57 left in the second half, but that is as close as DU could get. The ’Birds countered with a 15-0 run to take a 75-44 lead with 3:40 remaining and went on to win, 81-57.

ISU vs. Creighton

ISU finished with a weekend sweep after a 66-60 win over CU.

“Our team just dug in at one point and found everything they could within them to really stay active, fly around and provide a number of turnovers,” Glance said.

The ’Birds were led by Russell’s 22 points and senior guard Alexis Jenkins’ 16 points.

The Redbirds scored seven consecutive points in the first three minutes of the game to open the contest with a 7-0 lead. CU countered with a 13-4 run to grab a 13-11 advantage with 11:36 left in the opening half.

The ’Jays outscored ISU, 18-11, to extend their lead to nine points, 31-22 with 43 seconds until halftime. CU went into the locker room with a 31-25 advantage.

The Bluejays opened the second half on a 6-2 spur to take a double-digit lead, 37-27. But the ’Birds responded by outscoring CU, 12-5, to close within three points, 42-39, with 13:35 remaining in the second half.

The Bluejays scored the next five points to go up, 47-39, but ISU countered with a 12-2 run of their own to grab a 51-49 advantage with 8:51 left in the game.

From there, the Redbirds continued to outscore CU, 15-5 to take a 66-54 lead with 2:09 remaining in the contest. The ’Jays ended the game on a 6-0 run, but ISU prevailed, 66-60.

The ’Birds resume action at 7 p.m. Thursday against Southern Illinois in Carbondale.