Wayne State 87 #23 Concordia-St. Paul 69
The Wayne State College women's basketball team led from start to finish in posting an impressive 87-69 win at NSIC leading and 23rd-ranked Concordia-St. Paul Saturday evening in Northern Sun Conference women's basketball played at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. The surging Wildcats won their fifth game in a row and improve to 16-4 overall and 9-4 in the NSIC while the Golden Bears are now 16-4 overall and 10-3 in league play.
The Wildcats jumped out to an early 9-1 lead in the first 4:42 of the game. The host Golden Bears cut the WSC advantage to four points on two occasions, 13-9 and 18-14, but the Wildcats put together a huge scoring spurt in the final 3:30 of the first half to take control of the game. With WSC leading 29-23 with 3:31 remaining in the first half, the Wildcats ended the half on a 15-4 run to take a 44-27 lead at halftime.
In the second half, Wayne State maintained their double digit lead and led by as many as 22 points (64-42 with 9:58 to play) and dominated the Northern Sun Conference leader on its home floor in posting the impressive 87-69 win. The 87 points scored against Concordia-St. Paul are the most by the Wildcats in league play this season as Wayne State moved within one game of first place in the NSIC following the stellar road performance.
Sophomore forward Ashley Arlen scorched the nets for a game-high 31 points to lead all scorers. The Cascade, Iowa native was 10 of 20 from the field and 9 of 10 at the charity stripe in recording her 8th game of 20 or more points and the second game with 30 or more this season. Junior center Mara Hjelle was equally impressive for the Wildcats, scoring 21 points to go with a career-high 17 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season. The White Bear Lake, Minnesota native was 8 of 15 from the floor and 5 of 6 from the free throw stripe.
Also reaching double figures for Wayne State were Clare Duwelius with 16 points and Alyssa Fischbach 13. The Wildcats host 47.4 percent from the field, making 27 of 57 shots overall. WSC was 6 of 14 behind the three point line and an impressive 27 of 30 from the free throw line (90 percent).
For Concordia-St. Paul, Ashley Viehauser scored 18 points with Maurika Hickman and Jineen Williams adding 12 points apiece. The Golden Bears were held to 38 percent shooting by the Wildcats, making 27 of 71 shots from the floor.
Wayne State won the rebounding battle over Concordia-St. Paul 40-38 thanks to Hjelle's career-high 17 rebounds. Ashley Arlen added seven boards. The Wildcats had 17 assists and just 12 turnovers in the game.
Wayne State returns home next weekend as the Wildcats host travel partner Augustana College Saturday in a key Northern Sun Conference battle starting at 4:00 p.m. The Vikings are now tied for first in the NSIC with Concordia-St. Paul (10-3 in the league) with the Wildcats just one game back in third place at 9-4 in the NSIC.
