Box Score
ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn. – While the halftime score of Friday's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) women's basketball game between the University of Northwestern and Crown College might have been a little too close for comfort for the Eagles, UNW was able to earn its 15th overall win of the season and seventh of league play. Northwestern outscored the Storm 38-16 in the paint and 21-10 in second chance points to propel the Eagles to an 83-64 victory.
After Crown led by two points in the game's early goings, Northwestern used runs of 7-0 and 15-0 to lead 30-14 through the first 10 minutes of play. The Storm, who remain in the hunt for their second win of the season, mounted a comeback though, started by a pair of three-pointers from Taylor Dubberke. A 13-3 run by the home team cut UNW's margin to six before
Mollie Sir (Cresco, Iowa/Crestwood) was able to temporarily halt the spree with a mid-range jumper. The Storm's Alisa Warnes picked her team's spree back up, hitting two baskets to get Crown within a point within the lead before
Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) gave Northwestern a slightly bigger wedge between the two teams as her make with 49 seconds left in the period allowed the Eagles to go into the locker room with a 37-34 advantage.
Desiree Davis hit a three to pull Crown even with Northwestern 15 seconds into the second half, but the Eagles quickly put their foot down as if to say "enough." Sir and
Kim Campbell (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy) nailed back-to-back threes and
Jessica Fife (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo) made a pair of free throws to quickly put UNW in a more comfortable position. Northwestern slowly was able to build on its ballooning lead, which reached 18 on
Jacki Smith (Shoreview, Minn./Concordia Academy)'s consecutive conversions at the charity stripe at the 11:03 mark of the period. With the first half still too fresh of a memory, the Eagles continued to produce on the offensive end of the court as Fife's layup with 7:02 left pushed the lead to 77-57. Crown's efforts were only able to bring the Storm back to a 15-point deficit before consecutive Fife makes ended the game with Northwestern ahead for good by 19.
While the Eagles' 44 percent shooting performance in the first half wasn't a bad mark, UNW was able to convert 15 of its 28 second period chances while making 11 of 12 free throws down the stretch. Crown's shooting hovered around 40 percent throughout the night.
14 of
Chanel Madson (Westbrook, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove)'s team-high 19 points came in the first half, while Fife produced a staggering 18-rebound, 14-rebound performance to help the Eagles out-rebound Crown 44-27, which led to the outpouring of second chance opportunities.
Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) added 10 points on 4-9 shooting for Northwestern.
Davis and Dubberke combined for 41 of Crown's 64 points.
Northwestern will face a bigger challenge on Saturday's back side of this weekend's UMAC doubleheader as the Eagles travel west to face the University of Minnesota Morris at 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. While UNW is responsible for the Cougars' only loss in league play this year, Morris remains tied atop the UMAC standings with St. Scholastica at 8-1, just one game ahead of the Northwestern.
