NORMAL - While the Illinois State women's 49-point margin of victory over Kentucky Wesleyan told an accurate story of Tuesday's exhibition basketball game, the subplot spun a less obvious but similarly pleasing tale for the Redbirds.

"I thought our effort was there. We came out with a lot of energy," senior Maggie Krick said of ISU's 100-51 thrashing of the Division II Panthers. "We really played with that energy the whole second half. That's kind of hard to do once you build a big lead."

Krick paced an efficient Redbird offense with 23 points before a Redbird Arena crowd of 483.

"I was really proud of our girls," said ISU coach Robin Pingeton. "Exhibition games are an opportunity to evaluate where you're at as a team. The thing I'm most proud of was how hard we played from start to finish."

The Redbirds shot 57 percent from the field and earned a commanding 49-28 rebounding edge.

"It was great to have a size advantage and kind of do my own thing in the post," said 6-foot-6 ISU center Nicolle Lewis. "But I felt like overall we had a size advantage. People were blocking shots left and right and getting offensive rebounds."

The Redbirds held a 22-13 lead just past the midway mark of the first half before reeling off 16 straight points en route to a 48-21 halftime bulge.

ISU scored the first 10 points of the second half and extended its lead to 63-23.

"We did a tremendous job with ball movement," Pingeton said. "We did a tremendous job with our inside-out game, and for the most part we did a nice job on the boards. We had a span early in the second half we really played some pretty solid defense."

Krick also had eight rebounds and nine assists. Ashleen Bracey added 21 points. Lewis contributed 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Hannah Spanich scored 14 and blocked four shots.

"It was good to get a game of experience under our belt," said Krick. "I was just excited to get out there and play. My teammates did a great job of setting me up, especially in transition."

Kentucky Wesleyan shot 28 percent from the field and was led by the 11 points of Amanda Harnist.

ISU meets Truman State in its final exhibition next Tuesday at Redbird Arena before opening the regular season against UCLA on Nov. 14 at the Hawkeye Challenge in Iowa City, Iowa.