ST. PAUL, MINN - The University of Northwestern women's basketball team hosted the University of Dubuque Spartans in Saturday afternoon action. UNW finished one of their strongest performances of the season with an 81-64 win.
 
Northwestern moves to 7-6 and 3-1 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC), while Dubuque falls to 4-5 and 0-2 in the American Rivers Conference (ARC).
 
First quarter action started with a fastbreak Spartans bucket before a UNW three pointer. Both teams exchanged points as the Eagles made four consecutive three pointers to score their points. Play was tough and much grit was shown by both teams on each side of the court.
 
Rio Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) led the Eagles with six points and one rebound. UNW's biggest lead in the first (4) came with just under five minutes left in the quarter. Northwestern was ahead at the end of the quarter 17-16.
 
Second quarter deemed stronger than the first for the Eagles as Miranda Crenshaw (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) made two free throws right off the bat to put UNW up by three. As Dubuque would continue to score, the Eagles would also respond with points of their own, to extend their lead.
 
Northwestern went on a five point run before Dubuque would make a free throw to slow UNW. The Eagles led for the entire quarter and held their biggest lead of 13 with 1:31 left in the quarter.
 
Kelsea Lund (Madison, Minn./La qui Parle Valley) finished first half play with 15 points and two rebounds, while Brooklyn DeKam (Edgerton, Minn./Southwest MN Christian) followed closely scoring 11 and bringing down one rebound. Rio Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) swatted five shots in the half which is her career best.
 
The Eagles shot 87.5% from the free throw line and 44.4% overall.
 
Following halftime Northwestern became a scoring machine as they put together 28 points to the Spartans 11 (in the third). Lund added six more points and DeKam added eight. Landers added two more blocks to her first-half five. 
 
UNW continued to dominate through tough defense brought by the Spartans. Northwestern showed strong defense as well, as Dubuque did not have a consistent scoring run. The Eagles biggest run was 11 at the five minute.
 
Northwestern continued to out work the Spartans in the fourth quarter. The Eagles forced 18 turnovers in total and scored 36 points in the paint. Rio Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) was two blocks away from a triple-double.
 
Kelsea Lund (Madison, Minn./La qui Parle Valley) finished with 21 points, 2 rebounds and nine assists. Rio Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) added 13 points, two assists and 10 rebounds. Brooklyn DeKam (Edgerton, Minn./Southwest MN Christian) scored 19 points and grabbed one rebound.
 
The women's next game will be January 8th as they host the Northland Lumberjacks in a conference double header. The men begin at 5:30 pm and women tip-off at 7:15 pm.
 
Follow the Eagles at www.unweagles.com or on Instagram and Twitter at @unwwbb.