Wayne State 68 Colorado School of Mines 57
The Wayne State College women's basketball team, ranked ninth in the USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 Preseason Coaches' Poll, opened the 2011-12 season Friday evening with a 68-57 victory over the Colorado School of Mines in a non-conference contest played in Wayne, Nebraska. The Wildcats used a balanced offense with four players scoring in double figures while shooting 41 percent from the field in the matchup.
Wayne State got off to a slow start with their first point coming off an Ali Schwartzwald free throw five minutes and three seconds into the game with their first basket coming at the 13:27 mark on an Ashley Arlen layup. A back-and-forth first half saw the team exchange leads with the Wildcats having no lead bigger than six points while CSM's biggest lead was four in the first half. Ali Schwartzwald hit a three with 1:16 left in the first half to give the Wildcats a 25-23 lead but Tory Langas nailed two free throws with 55 seconds left in the half to knot it up at 25-25 and that is how the teams went to the locker rooms.
The Wildcats stormed out of the locker rooms to open the second half on an 11-0 run with Clare Duwelius leading the way with a three pointer and a lay up, Schwartzwald hit another three, and Arlen contributed a layup and free throw to build the 11 point lead. WSC hit 11 of the 14 free throws they attempted in the final 3:21 of the game to preserve the 11 point victory over the Orediggers.
WSC shot 40.8 percent from the field (20-49), 21 percent from behind the three point line (4-19) and 69 percent from the free throw line (24-35) for the game while CSM was 35 percent from the field (20-58), 35 percent from behind the arc (6-17) and 85 percent from the free throw line (11-13). The Orediggers' defense forced the Wildcats into 20 turnovers while the WSC defense forced 19 of their own. Wayne State narrowly edged out Colorado Mines in the rebounding department with a 39-34 advantage.
Arlen led the 'Cats with a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds while Schwartwald put in 16 points while going 10-12 on free throws. Duwelius (11) and Jennifer Kalbfell (10) were also in double figure points for Wayne State. Ellen Hansen (4), Eva Benson (4) and Alisha Brown (3) finished off the scoring column for the Wildcats. Schwartzwald also led the team in assists (5) and steals (4).
For CSM, Tory Langas led the scoring attack with 17 points while teammate Angie Charchalis was right behind her with 15 points. Katie Carty anchored the Orediggers' defense with four blocks while Charchalis recorded three steals.
Wayne State will be in action again Saturday afternoon hosting Colorado Christian in a rematch of last year's first round NCAA Division II Tournament game that was won by the Wildcats 78-73.
