Wayne State 79 Northern State 67
Wayne State junior point guard
Halley Busse scored a season-high 25 points on 8 of 12 shooting to power the Wildcats past Northern State 79-67 in a Northern Sun Conference women's basketball contest played Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. With the win, WSC improves to 13-5 and 8-4 in the NSIC South while Northern State drops to 11-7 and 7-5 in the NSIC North Division.
After Northern State opened with the first four points of the game, WSC used a 13-2 run to take the lead for good the rest of the first half.
A
Kylie Hammer fast-break layup gave WSC a 13-6 lead at the 4:55 mark and the Wildcats closed the first quarter with an 18-14 lead.
WSC increased the lead to 11 at 30-19 following a
Haley Vesey 3-pointer with 3:35 to play in the half.
NSU got within five at 30-25 before the Wildcats ended the half with a 35-28 lead.
The Wolves came out hot in the third quarter and used a 11-0 run to turn a 40-33 Wayne State lead into a Northern State advantage of 44-40 with 5:09 left in the quarter.
Wayne State responded and scored the final seven points of the quarter to grab a 58-50 lead over the Wolves.
The Wildcats ended any possible comeback by Northern State in the fourth quarter as WSC went 10-12 from the line to finish the second half 19-22 at the stripe as WSC capped a weekend sweep with a 79-67 win over Northern State.
Busse paced Wayne State with her season-best effort of 25 points, going 8 of 12 from the field, 4 for 6 behind the arc and 5-6 at the charity stripe. Junior forward
Erin Norling added 18 points, her 36
th consecutive game of double figure scoring. Junior center
Brittany Bongartz also hit double digits with 10 points.
Wayne State made 24-55 shots for 43.6 percent, including 8 of 17 from the 3-point line for a season-high 47.1 percent. The Wildcats also shot well from the foul line connecting on 23 of 26 for 88.5 percent, another season-high.
For Northern State, Lexi Wadsworth poured in a game-high 30 points to lead the Wolves as the lone double digit scorer.
NSU was 21 of 65 from the field for 32.3 percent and hit on just 8 of 34 3-point shots. The Wolves made 17 of 24 free throws.
WSC won the rebounding battle 45-36 with Bongartz grabbing nine boards to lead the 'Cats. Norling and
Josey Ryan added eight rebounds apiece.
Norling and
Kylie Hammer were each credited with four assists in the win.
The Wildcats will be on the road next weekend for NSIC South Division games at Minnesota State Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Concordia-St. Paul Saturday for a 3:30 p.m. contest.