ST. PAUL -- The Northwestern College women's basketball team kicked open the doors of its UMAC season tonight as the Eagles cruised past the College of St. Scholastica 71-51. NWC jumped out to an early lead, taking a 12-2 advantage within the first eight minutes of play. CSS clawed its way back into contention, minimizing the deficit to two to make the score 24-22 with 2:48 to play in the first half. The Eagles eliminated any chance of a comeback as they rattled off eight unanswered points before halftime to make the score 32-22 going into the locker room.
Throughout the second half, Northwestern maintained a ten point lead until the ten minute mark when the Eagles secured the game with a 9-0 run, padding the scoreboard at 53-32 and holding on to a 71-51 victory.
The Eagles had one of their best shooting performances of the season, making 50 percent of their attempts. NWC also did well from long range, as was evidenced by the team's nearly 40 percent mark from the three-point-arch. Both statistics prove to be critical, as St. Scholastica was only able to make 30 percent of its field goal attempts and only 14 percent from downtown.
Senior Katie DeWitt (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) paced the Eagles, scoring 19 points and grabbing 12 rebounds while dishing out six assists. Fellow senior Ariel Liesch (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) also came up big for Northwestern, tallying 18 points -14 of which came in the second half - and seven rebounds. Allison Johnson (Plymouth, Minn./Heritage Christian) (Greenfield, Minn./Heritage Christian) also added 12 points.
Kelley Cinquegrani and Bri Allen led St. Scholastica, who falls to 2-5 on the season (0-1 UMAC), scoring 18 and 16, respectively.
NWC improves its record to 4-3 (1-0 UMAC) and looks to take the energy of tonight's win into tomorrow as the Eagles play host to Northland College, who was picked by the UMAC coaches to finish first in the conference. Tip-off time is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Ericksen Center.
