NEW ULM, Minn. – After losing to Martin Luther College 71-47 at home on January 14
th, it was fair to not expect things to go much better for the University of Northwestern Women's Basketball team in Saturday's rematch on MLC's home floor. With the Eagles down by 12 at halftime, you could argue they had already exceeded the expectations of most. But Northwestern's expectations were to win, and a 15-3 run to open the fourth quarter brought UNW within a point with three minutes remaining. But the experienced Knights settled in and closed out the game on a 9-1 run to win by an 80-71 score.
The Eagles were competitive early, getting inside scores from
Emma Korinek (New Brighton, Minn./Concordia Academy) and
Carli Elrod (Lindstrom, Minn./Spectrum), and four-straight from
Brenna Vogel (New Prague, Minn./South Metro), to trail 11-8. Korinek and
Ella Frazier (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi) each knocked down a three-pointer in the final two minutes, but Martin Luther held onto a 19-15 advantage after 10 minutes of action.
MLC began the second quarter on a 5-0 run before Elrod buried a three. A
Karley Loven (Swanville, Minn./Swanville) triple two-and-a-half minutes later made it 30-23 in favor of the hosts, but the Knights extended their lead to 15 before
Marin Blom (Farmington, Minn./Farmington) converted an and-one opportunity. Frazier's jumper at the buzzer made the score 46-34 at halftime.
Martin Luther got a three-pointer on its opening possession of the second half, but Blom and Korinek combined for a 7-0 run to bring Northwestern within eight. Eight Elrod points and another Loven trey gave UNW another big boost as the visitors suddenly trailed by just five at 57-52; but a pair of threes from MLC's Wilhelmina Wenz, who finished the game with 21 points and 17 rebounds, helped the Knights push the margin back to 13 at the end of the period.
Faced with a tall mountain to climb with just 10 minutes of game left, the Eagles wasted no time. Northwestern scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter, and 15 of the first 18, to seize all the momentum and draw within a point at 71-70. Blom had six points in the run, while Frazier had five and Korinek four. But from that point on, the rim seemed to tighten up for UNW, and Martin Luther made the necessary free throws to pull away for an 80-71 win to move into fourth place in the UMAC at 4-3 (11-9 overall).
Northwestern's scoring was quite balanced, led by Elrod's second-consecutive double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds). Blom and Korinek both scored 13, with the latter adding seven rebounds, while Frazier chipped in 12 points and six boards. Loven scored eight points in just 10 minutes off the bench. It was one of UNW's better shooting performances of the season at 32% from behind the arc (8-25), while holding MLC to 24.1%.
The Eagles will return home to take on UW-Superior on Wednesday, February 4
th at 5:30 PM.
