Box Score

ST. PAUL -- Northwestern College earned its first win of the 2010-11 season on Friday night, defeating North Central University 76-58 to advance to the championship game of the 15th Annual NWC Tip-Off Tournament in the Ericksen Center. The Eagles received a 21-point, 15-rebound performance from Katie DeWitt (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial) (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial), who was playing in her first game of the team's young campaign.

North Central (0-2) caught NWC off guard early, jumping out to a 13-5 lead over the game's initial eight minutes. The Eagles started to settle down though as back-to-back three-pointers from Kelsey Kosman (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) and Kristin Sczublewski (Pierz, Minn./Pierz) (Pierz, Minn./Pierz) brought the home team within three of the Rams. DeWitt picked up from there, scoring a layup before Sczublewski nailed another shot from long range to spur a Northwestern run that lasted deep into the half. Over the course of nine minutes, NWC went from being down by eight points to leading by 15 at 31-16. The Eagles had 14 points off of 16 North Central turnovers in the first half en route to a 37-20 score at the break.

Northwestern extended its lead into the 20s early in the second half. Mollie Sir (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood) (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood), a freshman who was playing in her second game in an Eagles uniform, scored seven points in a row to give her team a 25-point advantage with 12:30 left to play. NWC's lead hit 28 points at the 7:50 mark of the second half when DeWitt hit consecutive free throws before the Eagles settled on a 76-58 final score.

As a team, Northwestern shot 44 percent from the field, converting 25 of its 57 attempts. On the other side of the court, the Eagles held North Central to a 21-54 mark (39 percent) while forcing the Rams into 22 turnovers. NWC committed 17 mistakes themselves while dishing out 16 assists.

DeWitt made eight of her 17 shots around the court while making all five of her free throw attempts. 12 of the senior's rebounds were on defense. Three other Eagles found double digits for scoring as well, as Sczublewski, Megan Myhre (Barnum, Minn./Barnum) (Barnum, Minn./Barnum) and Sir contributed 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively, for head coach Aaron Kahl's squad. Sczublewski finished the night with five assists, while Sir and Myhre had five and four rebounds.  The win was Kahl's first on Northwestern's bench after the head coach assumed his new duties in May.

For North Central, Elisabeth Trickey and Jorie Grenell combined for 29 points. Trickey made half of her 12 shots, while Grenell was 5-7 overall and 2-4 from behind the three-point arc.

The Eagles will face a tough test on Saturday when they face the University of Wisconsin-River Falls at 5 p.m. in Saturday's tournament championship game. The Falcons, who bring both size and quickness to the court, posted a comeback victory over Simpson College earlier in the day.