DECORAH, Iowa – The University of Northwestern Women's Basketball team followed the trend of UNW athletics teams playing in Iowa this weekend, squaring off with Luther College in a non-conference tilt. In a back-and-forth game since the ball was tipped, the Eagles were able to survive the Norse, 68-66, thanks to some clutch late-game possessions.
Jasmine Sondrol (Grand Forks, N.D./Red River) got the Eagles on the board inside in the first quarter to tie the game at two. After a Norse three-pointer,
Lexi Hagen (Jordan, Minn./Jordan) answered with a triple of her own to once again draw even. Luther continued to shoot well early, forcing the Eagles to continue to try and match. They continued to do so, as
Grace Landvik (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) executed an old-fashioned three-point play to draw even at eight and
Taylor Schuck (Maple Grove, Minn./Heritage Christian Academy) knifed through the Norse defense to knot things up again at 10.
The Eagles claimed their first lead of the game when
Rylie Hirschey (Pine River, Minn./Pine River Backus) checked in off the bench and immediately buried a three to put her team ahead, 13-10.
River Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow), who pulled down six rebounds in the opening quarter off the bench, made a layup to give UNW its largest lead of the first half at 16-10. The Norse began to respond, but Hagen drilled a three to extend the lead to 21-17. However, Luther would close the quarter strong and lead 24-22 despite Hagen's seven points.
Sondrol hit a three-ball to open the second quarter, and
Lexi Garcia (Colorado Springs, Colo./Vanguard) checked in and buried one of her own to beat the shot clock buzzer. Schuck put UNW back in front, 32-31, with a driving layup midway through the quarter, which was followed by another Hirschey triple. With just under a minute left, Hirschey was fouled and made the bucket plus the free throw. She had nine points off the bench to lead UNW in the first half, and the Eagles held a 38-37 advantage at the intermission.
Just over a minute into the third, Hagen scored to extend the Northwestern lead to 40-37. Hirschey hit another timely three to tie the game at 45, and Landers grabbed another offensive rebound with 1:35 left and made the put-back to draw even at 48. Terry broke the tie with a three on the following possession. The Eagles wound up closing the quarter on a 10-0 run, capped off by an
Ella Falk (Jamestown, ND/Jamestown) three to lead 56-48 heading into the final period.
Despite all the momentum favoring the team in purple, the home squad would not go down without a fight. Luther came out hot, knocking down a pair of three-pointers to cut the lead to two, but Hagen stopped the bleeding with a layup for UNW. The junior would soon make back-to-back baskets to stretch the lead to 64-57 with four minutes remaining. Then, chaos ensued.
A pair of Northwestern turnovers led to a pair of Luther three-pointers, and suddenly the UNW lead had been trimmed to one with 37 seconds left. The Eagles answered right back with a Sondrol bucket while being fouled. She was unable to make the free throw, so the lead was still just one possession. The Norse took advantage and knocked down a three to tie the game with 14.4 seconds remaining. Hagen was fouled on a reach-in with 4.1 left, and knocked down a pair of free throws to put Northwestern back in front. Luther had one final shot attempt for the win after a broken baseline out of bounds play, but came up empty and the Eagles escaped, 68-66.
Hagen once again led Northwestern in scoring with 17. She finished just shy of her fourth double-double in four games with nine rebounds. Hirschey was terrific off the bench again, hitting three of her four three-point attempts en route to 14 points. The junior is shooting an unfathomable 66.7% from downtown to start the season. Sondrol and Terry each added nine points, while
River Landers (Grand Meadow, Minn./Grand Meadow) turned in a dominant performance on the glass, grabbing 11 rebounds to pair with her six points. Northwestern was actually out-shot, both from the field and from three in the game, but won in two key areas that led to its success. The Eagles out-rebounded the Norse offensively, 15-11 and made 11 free throws while holding Luther to just six free throw attempts.
The win for
Aaron Kahl's squad improves UNW's record to 3-1 in non-conference play, and is its second win in the state of Iowa this week. The Eagles will have a lot of time to rest and eat some turkey, as they will be off until November 30
th when they travel to Viterbo University for a 4:00 PM tip.
