Box Score

ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern women's basketball team propelled off a 32-7 first half lead and withstood a second period surge by Bethany Lutheran College to gain its 16^th victory of the season Friday night. A 34-18 halftime lead resulted in a 68-52 outcome in favor of the Eagles, thanks in part of double-digit scoring totals from Mollie Sir (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood) and Hannah Holm (Charlotte, N.C./GRACE School).



The opening minutes proved to be slow offensively for both squads as the score read 3-3 with 14:28 left to play in the opening period. A Jessica Fife (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo) close-range make at the 12:52 mark kick-started an offensive run that saw Northwestern score 12 consecutive points to hold a 15-3 margin less than four minutes after the rally began. Hannah Holm (Charlotte, N.C./GRACE School) continued a successful first-half performance from beyond the arc to up UNW's advantage to 21-6 with 7:38 left, while the lead continued to mount as the minutes ticked by.

The Eagles' largest lead of the contest came at 32-7 with 2:40 to play as Kim Campbell (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) found success in the paint, but a late momentum shift resulted in the intermission score of 34-18. The home team owned a field goal percentage of .371 in the first 20 minutes of action, besting their opponents mark in both the overall field goal category and the result from three-point land.

Even with facing a deficit as they took the floor for the second half, the Vikings slowly began to chip away at the margin. BLC posted the first tally on the board with Aimie Wiechmann's triple at 18:45, but Sir soon responded with a trey of her own to bring the lead security back to 16.

Queue the rally of offense from the visitors on the scoreboard, and the Purple and Gold's previously established upper hand was down to four points at 42-38 with 13:13 remaining in the contest. Both squads exchanged buckets as the next inutes ticked by, but a combination of a Sir three-ball and Holm fastbreak make increased the home team's margin back to double-digits.

Once again, Bethany Lutheran proved its resiliency with more scoring runs to bring the contest back within reach as it found success at the charity stripe. It was soon time for Courtney Cunard (Missouri Valley, Iowa/Missouri Valley) and Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) to make their presence felt and once again push the game back to double-digit separation.

Holm's fourth triple of the night at the 2:44 mark would provide some lead assurance as the time rolled down, and as the final seconds played out the Eagles would come away with the 68-52 home court win.

UNW's 50% success rate from the floor in the final 20 minutes resulted in a .424 overall mark in the contest. Sir led all players with 15 points, while Holm was close behind with 14 of her own. Fife posted big night around the hoop, bringing in 15 boards in 25 minutes of action.

Northwestern (16-6 overall, 8-3 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference) will now shift its focus to a Saturday afternoon contest as the Eagles take on Martin Luther College at 3 p.m. The Knights edged UNW by a 88-82 margin in the squads' first meeting of the season on Jan. 17, and MLC currently holds a share of the second spot among all league teams.