Box Score

ST. PAUL –Thanks to a career night from Mollie Sir (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood), two other Eagles in double figures and a pair of very different halves, the University of Northwestern women's basketball team continued its successful start to the season, earning a 81-72 road win over Hamline University Tuesday night. The Eagles trailed by 13 points at half, but Sir's 31 points, including 23 in the second period, allowed UNW to overcome the deficit.

Hamline got off to a hot start, making eight of its first 13 shots, courtesy of Jordan Sammons  early scoring. The Eagles first got on the board at the 17:43 mark with Chanel Madson's three-pointer, but the Pipers raced out to a 20-7 lead four minutes later courtesy of consistent offensive action. The lead was maintain to 26-13 halfway through the first period, but a Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) triple brought the margin back within 10 with 9:14 to play in the first half.

A couple of key defensive boards slowed the home team's momentum, but more Piper offense would run the show for the time being. At the 6:57 point things began rolling for UNW as Madson found Jessica Fife (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo) for and then followed that up with another trey to cut the lead down to six, 29-23. Once again, the Eagles' southern Snelling Avenue North neighbor would bring the game back to a 10-point deficit with less than 5 minutes remaining on the clock. As the team's headed to regroup at halftime, Hamline led 43-30 after making seven three-pointers and posting a .500 rate from beyond the arc.  

The second half began with much of the game's trend as the Piper maintained the upper hand. The Purple and Gold began to chip away slowly and surely, trailing by seven in the 5^th minute of action. Before long, the Eagles found themselves in the bonus thanks to early Hamline fouls, providing the squad with 20 attempts from the charity stripe in the second 20 minutes alone.

 It looked like game would remain in favor of the home team until a changing of the tide around the 9:12 when the Pipers' lead began to fluctuate more and be cut down to two points courtesy of Fife's free throw makes with the clock reading 6:00. Soon after Fife would score down low to even the contest at 65-65 and another pair of successful free throws, this time by Hannah Holm (Charlotte, N.C./GRACE School) gave UNW the 67-65 upper hand.

Once things got rolling, there was no stopping the Eagle force with compounded scoring by Sir, Fife, and Madson to end the contest. In all, Northwestern shot 18-20 from the line in the final 20 minutes, a .900 mark that assisted the team to a 81-72 final score.

Sir's 31 points on the night was a new career high for the senior, and comes less than two weeks after she secured her 1,000^th point in an Eagle uniform Fife also added 21 tallies and nine boards to the final outcome, while Madson secured 14 points of her own.

As a team, UNW shot .333 in the first half before displaying a .500 reading in the second, flip flopping with its opponent who saw a better first half in terms of offensive production.

With the win, Northwestern moves to 4-1 overall and will be on the road again on Saturday, November 30, playing a 3 p.m. afternoon contest versus Gustavus Adolphus College.