Saturday, January 10, 2009
Wayne State 68 #17 MSU Moorhead 66
Sophomore centers Mara Hjelle and Jodie Boss combined for 31 points and the Wayne State College women's basketball team improved to 6-0 on the road this season with a 68-66 win at #17 MSU Moorhead Saturday night in Northern Sun Conference women's basketball played in Moorhead, Minnesota. The Wildcats are now 8-6 overall and move into third place in the NSIC standings with a 5-2 league mark while MSU Moorhead falls to 12-3 overall and 5-3 in league play. For the second straight night, Wayne State handed a team their first home loss of the season as the 'Cats beat Minnesota, Crookston Friday evening 89-75 for UMC's first home loss of the season. WSC also avenged a 66-63 loss to the Dragons earlier this season at NSIC Holiday Hoopsfest in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on November 29th.
Each team had key scoring spurts in the first half as WSC held a slim 42-41 lead at the intermission. With MSU Moorhead leading 20-19 with 9:39 to play in the first half, the Wildcats used a 15-4 run over the next three minutes to take their biggest lead of the game, 34-24, with 6:37 to play in the first half. Later in the first half with WSC holding a 38-29 lead, the host Dragons scored nine straight points to knot the score at 38-38 with 1:21 to play in the half.
The game remained close in the second half as Wayne State lead most of the time with neither team holding more than a five point lead. MSU Moorhead's last lead came at 60-59 with 4:28 to play on a basket by Angie Jetvig. WSC then scored six points in a row to take a 65-60 advantage with 2:33 left following two free throws by Laquisha Cook. The Dragons used a pair of Katie Walden free throws and a layup by Chris Falzon to pull within one point at 65-64 with 1:33 remaining. Wayne State's Mara Hjelle canned two free throws with 1:14 to play, pushing the Wildcat lead back to three at 67-64. The Dragons used a layup by Walden with 11 seconds left to cut the Wildcat lead to 67-66. Hjelle was fouled with 8.5 seconds left and made one of two charity tosses to give WSC a 68-66 cushion. MSU Moorhead's Jenny Thiesen missed on a three pointer as time expired to give Wayne State the exciting road victory.
Hjelle finished with a career-high 19 points to lead Wayne State in scoring. Jodie Boss and Clare Duwelius each added 12 points in the win for the Wildcats, who shot 25 of 60 from the field for 41.7 percent. WSC was 4 of 13 from the three point line and 14 of 20 (70 %) at the charity stripe.
For MSU Moorhead, 6-3 junior center Meghan Rettke recorded 20 points and 16 rebounds. Alison Nash-Gerlach finished with 14 points while Chris Falzon scored 10. The Dragons connected on 25 of 69 shots from the field (36.2%) and made just 2 of 19 shots (10.5%) from the three point line. MSUM made 14 of 17 free throws.
MSU Moorhead won the rebounding battle over Wayne State 46-37 thanks to Rettke's 16 boards. Sophomore forward Alyssa Fischbach grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds to pace the Wildcats on the glass. Both teams finished with 13 turnovers in the game.
Wayne State will be at home next weekend, hosting Winona State Friday night and Upper Iowa Saturday evening in Northern Sun Conference games starting at 6:00 p.m. both nights.
