Sioux Falls 77 Wayne State 72

            Despite a career-high 25 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore center Brittany Bongartz, the Wayne State College women's basketball team dropped their regular season finale Saturday night to Sioux Falls 77-72 in Northern Sun Conference women's basketball played in Wayne at Rice Auditorium.  The visiting Cougars improve to 21-7 and 16-6 in the league while WSC falls to 14-14 and 9-13 in NSIC games.
            Wayne State never led in the game and rallied several times from double digit deficits to get as close four late in the game, but Sioux Falls always answered with a key 3-pointer to fend off each Wildcat rally.
            The Cougars took an early six point lead at 11-5, but WSC rallied to end the first quarter trailing 19-16.
            USF took their first double-digit lead at 26-16 with 6:50 to go second quarter.  WSC got within three later in the quarter at 31-28 on a Halley Busse layup but the Cougars closed the half with six straight points to take a 37-28 lead at the break.
            Sioux Falls took a pair of 11-point leads in the third quarter and held a 52-46 lead entering the fourth quarter.
            WSC trailed 63-52 with 6:27 to play, then scored seven straight points and got within four at 63-59 following two Brittany Bongartz free throws. 
            The Cougars increased their lead to eight at 74-66, but WSC used two free throws each from Bongartz and Kylie Hammer to cut the deficit to four again at 74-70 and got as close as three on a Halley Busse layup with 15 seconds left to make the score 75-72.
            Sioux Falls sealed the win with a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to play to make the final score 77-72.
            Bongartz led WSC with her fourth double-double of the season, a career-high 25 points with 12 rebounds.  She was 7 of 10 from the field and a perfect 10 for 10 at the foul line.  Erin Norling added 14 points with Kylie Hammer scoring 12.
            Wayne State shot 19 of 55 from the field for 34.5 percent, but was just 2 of 17 behind the arc.  The Wildcats made up for it at the free throw line making 32 of 36 for 88.9 percent.
            Kaely Hummel scored 20 points for Sioux Falls with Gloria Mulumba also hitting double digits with 12.
            The Cougars made 25 of 57 shots for 43.9 percent and hit 9 of 28 from 3-point range.  USF made 18 of 22 at the charity stripe.
            WSC held a 37-33 edge in rebounding over Sioux Falls thanks to 12 rebounds from Bongartz.
            Norling led WSC with four assists while Busse was credited with four steals.
            WSC will play in the first round of the NSIC/Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament Wednesday evening at the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota in a 6 p.m. contest.