#9 Wayne State 53 Concordia-St. Paul 50
#9 Wayne State held off a late Concordia-St. Paul rally as the Wildcats recorded a 53-50 Northern Sun Conference women's basketball win Monday evening over the Golden Bears at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. WSC improves to 12-1 overall and remains in first place in the NSIC with a 6-1 league mark while Concordia-St. Paul drops to 6-6 overall and 3-3 in league play.
Both teams showed signs of the holiday break in the first half. The host Golden Bears took a 9-5 lead with 13:31 to play in the first half following a three point play by Anika Whiting. Wayne State then went on a 13-2 run and took their biggest lead of the first half, 18-11, with 6:48 to play after a Jennifer Kalbfell three point play. Later in the half, WSC took another seven point lead at 22-15 before finishing with a 22-17 lead at halftime.
After shooting just 28 percent in the first half (7-25), the Wildcats used strong outside shooting early in the second half to build their first double-digit lead of the night. CU scored the first two points of the second half to pull within three points at 22-19. WSC put together a 14-4 scoring run over the next 5:57 and used back-to-back three pointers from Clare Duwelius and Ashton Yossi to take a 36-23 lead with 13:39 to go in the game.
WSC took their biggest lead of the game at 44-30 with 10:14 to play on a Yossi three pointer, but the host Golden Bears rallied on the Wildcats and made the game interesting until the end. CU held the Wildcats scoreless for nearly 5:30 as the Golden Bears got as close as three points at 46-43 on a jumper by Jodi Batzel with 3:37 left. Wayne State's Ali Schwartzwald drained a key three pointer on the next possession to put the 'Cats back up by six at 49-43.
The two teams traded baskets until the final minute when Batzel made a three pointer to cut the WSC lead to 53-50 with 25 seconds to play. CU had a chance to tie the game on the final possession after Wayne State missed its only free throw of the game with 16 seconds to play. But Yossi stole the ball from Concordia-St. Paul's Rachel Hansen with five seconds remaining as the Golden Bears were attempting to set up the game-tying shot as WSC held on for the win.
Freshman reserve guard Ashton Yossi led WSC in scoring with 14 points, making a season-best 4 of 5 from the three point line and 5 of 8 overall from the field. She also handed out five assists and had two steals. Senior point guard Ali Schwartzwald added 13 points and also had five assists. Senior All-American forward Ashley Arlen, the NSIC's leading scorer at 19.5 points per game, was held to eight points, marking the first time this season she has been held under 10 points.
Wayne State made 18 of 49 shots from the field for 36.7 percent while connecting on 8 of 16 behind the three point line for 50 percent. The 'Cats were 9 of 10 at the free throw line.
For Concordia-St. Paul, Anika Whiting scored a game-high 21 points on 8 of 17 shooting. Jodi Batzel added 17 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds. The Golden Bears shot 20 of 64 from the field for 31.3 percent and was 3 of 15 from the three point line. CU was a perfect 7 of 7 at the free throw line.
The Golden Bears won the rebounding battle over Wayne State 45-31 thanks to 15 boards from Batzel while Wayne State's top rebounder was Arlen with eight. WSC did have eight blocked shots in the game as 6-6 freshman reserve center Whitney Epp had five rejections in a season-high 25 minutes of playing time while Arlen added three blocks. CU had 11 turnovers in the game to 10 by WSC.
Wayne State will be in action again Tuesday evening playing a 6:00 p.m. Northern Sun Conference contest at St. Cloud State.
