ST. PAUL, Minn. – The second half of Wednesday's UMAC Semifinal win for the second-seeded University of Northwestern Women's Basketball team, and specifically senior forward
Jasmine Sondrol (Grand Forks, N.D./Red River), was one to remember. Trailing by one at halftime, Sondrol and the Eagles could have been confused with the 2017 Golden State Warriors if you squinted a little. Northwestern torched the Ericksen Center nets in the second half, going 8-11 from deep to pull away from No. 3 seed Bethany Lutheran College for a 79-66 win in front of a passionate crowd. The win, coupled with a UW-Superior win in overtime over Martin Luther, sets up a UMAC Championship game in Superior between the top two teams in the conference on Saturday.
It was senior guard
Grace Landvik (Roseville, Minn./Concordia Academy) who paced UNW's offense early, scoring twice inside to give her team a 4-2 lead.
Ella Falk (Jamestown, N.D./Jamestown) and
Taylor Christenson (Maple Grove, Minn./Heritage Christian Academy) made back-to-back layups to extend the lead to four, then a Sondrol layup a minute later made it a 6-0 run and a 10-4 lead for the Eagles. Bethany was able to close the gap to two points before two Christenson free throws and a
Reese Sellers (Yuma, Ariz./Yuma Catholic) three-pointer, set up by a
Lexi Garcia (Colorado Springs, Colo./Vanguard) steal, pushed the lead to 15-8. The quarter would conclude with a 15-10 margin.
Two early buckets in the second period brought the Vikings within a point, but the steady presence of Landvik ended the 6-0 run with a layup to make it 17-14. A BLC three tied the game at 17, but Sondrol made two foul shots and tossed a dime of a backdoor pass to Christenson for a layup to get the lead back to four. It was then Sellers's turn to make a difference, as the sophomore hit a timely three and dished a pocket pass to Falk for a layup to make it 26-22 as Northwestern tried to fend off a barrage of Bethany Lutheran threes. A pair of Sondrol baskets and an
Allison Terry (Blaine, Minn./Blaine) drive kept UNW up by three, but Bethany scored the final four points of the period to take a 33-32 lead into the locker room at the halfway point.
Sondrol scored Northwestern's first four points of the third quarter to give her team a 36-35 edge, but the Vikings scored five straight to go back ahead by four. Christenson answered with a big three-pointer to trim the deficit to one, then the tide-turning run ensued just under a minute later. A Sellers jumper ignited a 10-2 run that was finished off by two threes and a step-through off the glass from Sondrol and put the Eagles ahead, 49-44. They would not trail for the remainder of the game. A spinning jump shot by Falk and a Landvik put-back after an offensive rebound closed out UNW's third quarter scoring as the hosts took a 53-49 lead into the final stanza.
The score was close at the beginning of the final period, but Falk made sure that would not remain the case for long. The sophomore buried three shots from behind the arc in the first 2:25 of the quarter to put Northwestern ahead by a 62-51 score. The run grew to 14-3 and the lead to 15 after Hagen got going with two layups, one of which was an and-one. A couple more threes from Sondrol and Hagen, plus a Falk layup, helped UNW achieve its largest lead of the night at 75-59, then a Christenson layup and two Sondrol free throws closed out the 79-66 win.
Sondrol's career night couldn't have come at a better time, as the senior set a new career-best with 25 points on 9-11 shooting (3-3 3FG, 4-4 FT). She also set a new career mark in assists with six, and added a pair of blocks as well. Falk tallied 17 points (11 in the fourth quarter), four steals and two assists, while Christenson finished with 11 points and two assists. Landvik chipped in eight points and six rebounds, and was matched in points by Hagen and Sellers, who also dished out a pair of assists. UNW shot the lights out, making 50.8% of its field goal attempts (31-61), 50% of its threes (10-20) and 100% of its free throws (7-7) despite being out-rebounded 31-18. Northwestern did turn over BLC 20 times and only committed 10.
The 18-8 Eagles will travel north to top-seeded UW-Superior for Saturday's UMAC Tournament Championship game. The two squads not only shared the regular season conference title, but also split the season series, with each team winning in the other's building. Tip-off in Superior is slated for 4:30 PM and will be broadcast on the UMAC Sports Network, with the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III National Tournament up for grabs.
