Wayne State 99 Upper Iowa 74

            Wayne State cruised to a comfortable win Saturday evening, defeating Upper Iowa 99-74 in Rice Auditorium. The win gives the Wildcats their third in a row, moving them to 11-5 on the season with a 6-4 conference mark. Upper Iowa fell to 3-15 and 0-10 in the NSIC with the loss.
            The Wildcats jumped out to a 16-8 lead in the first quarter, increasing their lead to 10 after the first quarter with a 25-15 advantage. Sophomore Erin Norling paced the Wildcats with seven points in the first 10 minutes, while sophomore guard Halley Busse finished the opening quarter with three of her four assists.
            Wayne State opened the second quarter on a 12-3 run to extend the lead to 37-18. The Wildcats used blistering defense to create seven turnovers from the Peacocks, translating to a 12-1 advantage in points-off-turnovers for Wayne State. Another 25-15 quarter in favor for Wayne State put the Wildcats in a comfortable 50-30 advantage going into the break.
            Kylie Hammer joined in on the high-scoring affair in the third, scoring eight straight points for the Wildcats, including back-to-back treys, to give Wayne State a 61-39 edge. Wayne State put up 27 points in the third, tied for their third-best performance in a quarter on a season and providing a 77-55 lead with ten minutes to play.
            Wayne State closed out the fourth one point shy of what would have been their first 100+ point performance since a 112-48 drubbing of York College on November 19, 2015. The 99-74 win gave the Wildcats their highest scoring win of the season while shooting 33-70 (47.1%) from the field, their best shooting performance of the year as well. The Wildcats shared the ball well, providing 26 assists on 33 buckets.
            Busse led a quintet of Wildcats in double-figures, ending the night on 18 points and four assists. Norling (five assists) and Hammer (four assists) ended with 17 points apiece, while Haley Vesey ended the night on 14 points. Bongartz joined with 11 points of her own, her 12^th straight game scoring in double-digits.
            Savannah Domeyer led the Peacocks on the night with 20 points on 9-14 shooting. Upper Iowa shot 9-16 from deep, good for 56.3% and assisted on 22 of 26 made baskets.
            WSC is on the road next weekend, visiting MSU Moorhead Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Northern State in a 4 p.m. contest.