ST. PAUL – The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) got what it wanted when it chose Friday's University of Northwestern versus University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball contest as its Game of the Week. Kim Campbell (Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy)'s three-point basket with 1:06 to play broke a 58-58 tie, and the Eagles made enough free throws in the final seconds to win 64-58. The victory puts UNW in a tie with the Cougars for first place in the UMAC standings with both teams having one game left in the regular season on Saturday afternoon.

Northwestern couldn't have asked for a better opening, overcoming early turnovers by both teams to lead by 12 at halftime. Early success in the paint opened up the outside for the Eagles, with Chanel Madson (Westbrook, Minn./Westbrook-Walnut Grove) and Jessica Cole (Altoona, Iowa/Southeast Polk) going for back-to-back jumpers that put UNW ahead 11-3. The margin reached 12 on Regan Cooper (Pella, Iowa/Pella)'s make at 10:49 before Cooper gave Northwestern its largest lead of the night at 26-11. The buffer remained significant, with the Eagles going into the locker room with a 28-16 advantage.

Morris, the UMAC's top team coming into the game, showed that it certainly wasn't going away easily, chipping the double digit lead down to three before five minutes had ticked off the second half clock. Kendra Wycoff, the Cougars' leading scorer, started to heat up from the outside, as did her teammate Kayla Kraemer. Madson did her duty to keep the Eagles ahead by eight with a long three of her own, but Wycoff and Kraemer combined for four straight deep balls to help the Cougars knot the score at 44-44 with 10:49 to go in regulation. UMM eventually took a lead on Tori Holt's jumper, but the two-point Cougars margin lasted for 42 seconds before Northwestern's Tiffany Stubbs (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) went for three on her own to give the Eagles the upper hand again. It was neck-and-neck from there, as a maximum of two points separated the two teams until Campbell's big make to break a 58-58 tie gave UNW enough momentum to finish the game with a win.

Northwestern, who made 52 percent of its attempts in the first half, cooled off a bit in the second to finish at 48 percent for the game. Even though the Eagles had their third-best shooting rate of the season, it was UNW's rebounding that was just as much of a difference-maker. Jacki Smith (Shoreview, Minn./Concordia Academy), Campbell, and Cooper all finished in double figures for Northwestern, with Cooper ending the game one rebound shy of a double-double at nine. Four different Eagles had at least five boards on the night.

For Morris, Wycoff scored a game-high 15 points, most of which came from outside the three-point arc in the second half. Holt added 12 points for the Cougars (13-11, 11-2 UMAC).

Now 15-9 overall, Northwestern, who is also 11-2 in league play, owns the tiebreaker against Minnesota Morris in the league standings and could clinch the top seed in the UMAC Tournament with a win over Crown College on Saturday. Both UNW and the Cougars face two of the conference's weaker teams tomorrow. Crown and North Central University are both 3-10 against UMAC opponents, and wins for Northwestern and Morris against them would mean a share of the regular season championship. Tip-off for both teams is at 3 p.m.