Wayne State 66 University of Mary 55
The Wayne State College women's basketball team built a 20 point first half lead, then held off a late second half rally that saw the University of Mary get as close as four points, as the Wildcats won their 10th straight game Saturday night with a 66-55 Northern Sun Conference women's basketball win over the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. Wayne State is now 21-4 overall and 14-4 in league play while Mary falls to 9-16 overall and 5-13 in the NSIC.
Both teams got off to a slow start as Wayne State held a 11-8 lead at the midway point of the first half. But the Wildcats caught fire and scored 30 points in the final 10 minutes to take a sizeable 41-24 lead over the Marauders at halftime.
Wayne State maintained a double digit lead for much of the second half until the Marauders made a late rally on their home floor. With WSC leading 54-36 with 8:08 to play, Mary used an 11-0 run keyed by three consecutive three pointers to rally as the Marauders got as close as four points at 58-54 on a pair of Rachel Zillmer free throws with 2:12 left in the game. On the next Wildcat possession, sophomore Clare Duwelius drained a three pointer to put WSC in front 61-54, then WSC forced Mary into several misses and the Marauders had to foul Wayne State down the stretch. Ashley Arlen and Mara Hjelle combined to make five of six free throws in the final minute as WSC went on to the 66-55 win.
Hjelle led Wayne State in scoring with a game-high 19 points followed by Arlen with 15 points and 10 rebounds for her eighth double-double of the season. Sophomore reserve guard Alisha Brown added nine points and seven assists. The Wildcats shot 23 of 57 from the field for the game for 40.4 percent. WSC was 16 of 33 in the first half (48%) but hit just 7 of 24 shots (29%) in the second half. WSC was 5 of 21 from the three point line and 15 of 17 at the free throw stripe.
Mary's top scorer was reserve Marlee Finley with 15 points, making 5 of 11 three point shots. Laura Petersen added 12 points with Rachel Zillmer scoring 10. The Marauders were held to just 32.7 percent shooting in the game, making 18 of 55 shots. UM was 8 of 19 behind the three point line and 11 of 16 at the free throw stripe.
Wayne State won the rebounding battle over Mary 41-35 thanks to 10 boards by Arlen and nine by Alyssa Fischbach. Mary's top rebounder was Marlee Finley with eight.
Both teams had 16 turnovers in the game. Brown had seven of Wayne State's 14 assists while Kayla Rogers handed out five assists for Mary.
Wayne State will conclude its three game road trip Wednesday evening with a visit to Southwest Minnesota State for a Northern Sun Conference contest starting at 6:00 p.m.
