Box Score Wayne State 83 Concordia-St. Paul 74

            Sophomore reserve guard Kylie Hammer scored a career-high 22 points and Wayne State outscored Concordia-St. Paul 28-14 in the fourth quarter to rally for an 83-74 Northern Sun Conference South Division women's basketball victory Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota at the Gangelhoff Center.  The Wildcats improved to 14-6 and 9-5 in the NSIC while the host Golden Bears fall to 9-11 and 6-8 in the league.
            The first half was a tightly contested matchup featuring seven ties and five lead changes.
            After host Concordia-St. Paul jumped to an early 7-2 lead, WSC scored nine straight points for an 11-7 lead and closed the first quarter with an 18-17 lead.
            Although the Wildcats held the advantage much of the second quarter, the WSC lead was no bigger than five points and the Wildcats used a pair of Hammer free throws to end the half to take a narrow 39-38 lead at the break.
            Wayne State pushed the lead to six early in the third quarter at 49-43 following a Hammer 3-pointer at the 5:39 mark.
            But Concordia-St. Paul went on a 17-3 scoring run over the next 4:15 and took a 60-52 lead on the Wildcats before closing the third quarter with a 60-55 lead.
            The Golden Bears took their biggest advantage of the game at nine – 64-55 with 8:30 remaining – when Wayne State went on a game-decisive scoring surge.
            WSC outscored CSP 16-2 and used back-to-back 3-pointers from Halley Busse and Hammer to take a 71-66 lead with 3:42 to play.
            Concordia-St. Paul was within four and had several chances to get closer, but WSC got an offensive rebound and put-back from freshman Josey Ryan to take a 75-69 lead with 1:22 to play and the 'Cats sealed the win making free throws late, finishing the quarter a perfect 12-12, to cap the comeback with the 83-74 win.
            Hammer finished the game with a career-high 22 points, missing just one shot in the contest.  The Wayne sophomore was 7 of 8 from the field, 3-3 behind the arc and 5 for 5 at the foul line.  Junior center Brittany Bongartz contributed her second double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds, including 9 of 9 at the stripe.  Junior forward Erin Norling added 18 points with Busse chipping in 11.
            Wayne State made 25 of 57 shots from the field for 43.9 percent and made just 4 of 20 behind the arc.  The Wildcats scorched the nets from the foul line making a season-best 29 of 31 for 93.5 percent.
            Danielle Schaub paced Concordia-St. Paul with 24 points followed by Sydney Schultz and Meghan DuBois with 14 and 12 points respectively.
            Concordia-St. Paul was 27 of 66 shooting for 40.9 percent including 8 of 21 from the 3-point line.  The Golden Bears were 12 for 18 at the stripe.
            WSC won the rebounding battle over CSP 40-35 thanks to 11 boards from Bongartz and nine by Norling.  Autumn Mlinar and Busse were each credited with three assists while Awoti Akoi had two of Wayne State's six steals.
            Wayne State will be at home next weekend hosting NSIC cross division games vs. the University of Mary Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Minot State Saturday at 3:30 p.m.