Friday, January 9, 2009

Wayne State 89 Minnesota, Crookston 75

            Clare Duwelius scored a career-high 28 points off the bench to lead Wayne State College in a 89-75 win at Minnesota, Crookston in Northern Sun Conference women's basketball played Friday evening in Crookston, Minnesota.  WSC improved to 7-6 overall and a perfect 5-0 in road games this season while moving to 4-2 in the NSIC.  The Wildcats also handed Minnesota, Crookston their first home loss of the season (5-1), dropping the Golden Eagles to 7-6 overall and 3-4 in the NSIC.

            Wayne State trailed a majority of the first half, but used an 18-2 scoring spurt to end the half and take control of the game.  The Wildcats trailed 40-32 with 4:43 to play in the first half, but used the 18-2 scoring run to end the first half to take a 50-42 lead over Minnesota, Crookston.  The 50 points scored in the first half by the Wildcats were a season-high.

            The Wildcats maintained the lead for the entire second half and withstood a late run by the host Golden Eagles to hang on for the victory.  Minnesota, Crookston got as close as five points, 75-70 with 5:19 remaining.  However, Wildcat freshman reserve guard Clare Duwelius sank three consecutive three pointers for the Wildcats to end any hope of a UMC comeback, giving WSC an 84-71 lead with just over 3:00 to play and the Wildcats never looked back in picking up the 89-75 win.

            The 89 points scored by WSC was a season-high thanks to Duwelius' 28 points.  The graduate of West Des Moines Dowling Catholic HS (Iowa) hit 9 of 15 shots from the field, including 6 of 9 from the three point line, and was 4 of 4 from the free throw stripe to account for her 28 points.  Other players reaching double figures for Wayne State included Kati Jo Christensen with 13 points and Mara Hjelle with 11.  Leading scorer Laquisha Cook was held to just eight points, making only 3 of 18 shots from the field.

            Wayne State shot 29 of 61 from the field for a season-high 47.5 percent.  The 'Cats were 10 of 19 (52.6%) from the three point line and 21 of 25 from the free throw stripe. 

            For Minnesota, Crookston, Megan Eul and Bri Zabel scored 17 points apiece followed by Jamie Zelinsky with 13 and Gina Jaroszewski with 12 points.  The Golden Eagles shot 41 percent (25 of 61) from the field, making 8 of 20 three point shots to go with 17 of 21 free throw attempts.

            Minnesota, Crookston held a slight 37-35 edge in rebounding over Wayne State with Alyssa Fischbach grabbing eight boards to lead the Wildcats.  Sophomore center Jodie Boss recorded three blocked shots for Wayne State and becomes the all-time leader in Wildcat women's basketball history.  The Columbus, Nebraska native, who leads NCAA Division II in blocked shots this season at 3.58 per game, now has 136 career blocks to pass Jodi Otjen's previous school record of 135 blocks from 1990-94. 

            Wayne State will be in action again Saturday night as the Wildcats visit #17 MSU Moorhead in a Northern Sun Conference game starting at 6:00 p.m.