ST. PAUL, Minn- The Northwestern women's basketball team hosted the North Central Rams for the second round of the UMAC Tournament Friday evening in the Ericksen Center. A hot shooting Rams team was too much for the Eagles as they fell 79-48.
The game started with both teams exchanging free throws in favor of the Rams 3-1.
Kelsea Lund (Madison, Minn./Lac qui Parle Valley) responded with back-to-back three pointers to give the Eagles a 7-3 lead two and a half minutes in. After North Central closed the lead down to a one possession game, neither team would be able to break out with more than a three point lead for the rest of the quarter. A last second layup for the Eagles in the first cut their deficit to one point, 20-19.
In the second quarter, NCU extended their lead to six with a 5-0 run in the first minute. Both teams would then exchange buckets, however another small run for the Rams would keep the Eagles out of reach for the lead. As the half winded down,
Taylor Schuck (Maple Grove, Minn./Heritage Christian Academy) would hit a highly contested layup to cut the North Central lead down to five as Northwestern entered the lockers trailing 35-30.
Both teams shot exceptionally well for the half. The Eagles were able to knock down 41.4 percent of their overall shots while only being able to hit 28.6 percent of their threes. The big difference of the half for both teams was their ability to score points off of turnovers, as the category favored the Rams.
The second half just did not go the way of UNW as NCU came out firing and continued to fire throughout the final 20 minutes. The hot hand of North Central was too much for Northwestern as they fell 79-48.
Leading in scoring for the Eagles was
Lexi Hagen (Jordan, Minn./Jordan) and Lund who both finished the game with eight points while
Megan Roberts (Greeley, Colo./Dayspring Christian Academy) scored seven along with a team leading three steals.
It's not over for the Eagle's women's basketball team just yet. They will be competing in, and quite possibly hosting, a NCCAA Tournament play-in game sometime next week. Details on the NCCAA Tournament game will be announced later. For all things UNW women's basketball, visit www.unweagles.com or follow them on social media @unwwbb.
