EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – Cougar fans enjoyed a pair of outstanding individual offensive performances Saturday at First Community Arena, but the visiting Illinois State Redbirds grabbed an 80-71 win over SIUE.

Gabby Nikitinaite matched her career high with 27 points for the Cougars, hitting a personal-best six three-pointers. She shot 8 of 16 from the field, 6 of 10 from three-point range and 5 of 5 from the free throw line.

Illinois State countered with a career-high 30 points from Juliunn Redmond. She hit 10 of 14 from the field, including a single three-pointer, and hit 9 of 11 from the free throw line. Redmond scored 18 of her 30 points in the fourth period for the Redbirds, which improved to 3-6.

"An all-around tough Illinois State team obviously," said SIUE Head Coach Samantha Quigley Smith. "They've got a really great player in JuJu Redmond. I don't think we gave up. I think we made a little run at the end of the fourth. Maybe needed a couple more minutes, but just all around we've got to play a full 40 minutes. I know I've been saying that, I sound like a broken record, but if we can find a consistent 40 minutes with our group, we're going to be a special team.

"As Coach said, it starts on the defensive end," added Nikitinaite. "It doesn't matter what we do on offense. We've got to get stops and we couldn't get stops when we needed them."

SIUE, which hit a season-best 10 three-pointers, dropped to 4-5 overall.

"Gabby I think has given us some great lift from a scoring standpoint, but all around our defensive effort needs to be better as a whole team," said Smith.

The Redbirds opened the game with a 13-4 run on the Cougars and did not trail. SIUE came within two points at 43-41 on a jump shot from Mikayla Kinnard, who finished with 12 points.

"It's hard to get the momentum back when you start off kind of slow," said Smith. "I felt we found some runs in the third going into the fourth, but then Illinois State came back with their own run. So you've got to be able to stop their run and get a couple stops in a row to put yourself in position to take a lead."

Mikia Keith, who had three three-pointers, added 11 points.

Illinois State shot 55.6 percent from the field (30-54), scoring 46 points in the paint.

"We're getting better defensively," said Smith. "I would say we're better than we were a month ago. We just need to continue to get better."

The Cougars are now idle until Dec. 19 when they faced off against Toledo in a 3:30 p.m. game at First Community Arena.