Colorado Christian 61 #18 Wayne State 60
The Wayne State College women's basketball team, ranked 18th in the USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 Preseason Coaches' Poll, shot just 30 percent from the field (16 of 54) in falling at Colorado Christian Friday evening 61-60 in non-conference women's basketball played in Lakewood, Colorado. With the loss, WSC falls to 1-1 while it was the season-opener for the Cougars moving to 1-0 on the season.
WSC struggled early from the field, making just 3 of its first 17 shots while falling behind 11-3 with 13:26 to play in the first half. The Wildcats used strong free throw shooting (11 of 12 in the first half) to get back into the game and knotted the score at 19-19 with 5:50 left in the half on two Mara Hjelle free throws. Alisha Brown and Clare Duwelius each sank two free throws to put WSC in front 25-21 with 2:54 remaining in the half, but Colorado Christian reeled off 14 straight points in just 1:40 with the final nine points scored by freshman guard Christina Whitelaw giving the Cougars a 35-25 lead. An Alyssa Fischbach basket for Wayne State with 47 seconds left in the half made the score 35-27 at halftime.
The Wildcats made just 7 of 28 shots (25 percent) in the first half and had 14 turnovers while Colorado Christian used 48 percent shooting (14 of 29) to take the eight point lead at halftime.
Colorado Christian maintained their lead early in the second half and took their biggest lead of the game at 54-43 on a Gillian Foster jumper with 7:40 to play. WSC scored the next seven points and pulled within four at 54-50 with 6:16 to play following a layup by Alisha Brown. A three pointer by Whitelaw for CCU put the Cougars up seven at 57-50, but the 'Cats used two free throws by Ashley Arlen and a layup by Arlen to cut the Cougar advantage to 57-54 with 2:36 remaining. Colorado Christian used baskets by Kayla Fakelman and Kelsie Hert to go up 61-54 with 1:31 left.
Wayne State used back-to-back three pointers by Clare Duwelius to get within one point at 61-60 with 46 seconds remaining. The Wildcats forced a Cougar turnover with 13 seconds to play and called timeout to set up the potential game winning shot, but Colorado Christian came up with a big defensive play as Whitelaw stole the ball from Duwelius with three seconds remaining to seal a 61-60 win for the host Cougars.
Duwelius led Wayne State in scoring with 16 points followed by Arlen with 15 and Alisha Brown 12. Alyssa Fischbach hauled in a career-high 14 rebounds for the Wildcats. WSC shot just 29.6 percent from the field, making 16 of 54 shots. The Wildcats were just 7 of 23 from the three point line and 21 of 27 at the charity stripe. WSC had 25 turnovers in the contest.
For Colorado Christian, freshman guard Christina Whitelaw scored a game-high 20 points followed by Kayla Fakelman and Stephanie Allen with 10 points apiece. Bre McBeth grabbed 10 rebounds for the Cougars, who made 50 percent of their shots on 26 of 52. CCU was 4 of 10 from the three point line and 5 of 10 at the free throw stripe. The Cougars had 24 turnovers and were outrebounded by the Wildcats 40-32.
Wayne State will face Colorado School of Mines Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. The Orediggers qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season and opened their season Friday night with a 76-62 win over Northern State.
