Steve Garber gambled with his best player in the tournament opener, resting ICC's LaTasha Hollingshed and her tender knees for all but 14 minutes of the game.

"LaTasha has been nursing a little bit of a knee problem, some tendonitis that flares up at times."

"I wanted to get in." said Hollignshed, who still scored 10 points despite the limited playing time. "The other team was coming back and I just wanted to get in and play with the team."

Without Hollingshed ICC shot 29–percent from the field and couldn't shake upstart Mesa. But each time she entered the game the Cougars pulled away. Then, with Hollingshed back in the game in the second half, Richwoods product Kylee Grant hit a pair of crucial 3–pointers to give ICC some breathing room and eventually a 70–62 victory.

"We're the fifth seed," said Grant, who led the Cougars with 15, "so we have an extra game and at least we got our jitters out. That's about the best thing we can say about the game and that we won. A win is a win and we're going to take it and we still play tomorrow, so we're happy about it."

ICC will play Carl Sandburg Thursday at 4 o'clock.