Augustana 87 Wayne State 76

            Augustana raced out to a 31-15 first quarter lead and Wayne State could never recover as the Wildcat women's basketball team suffered an 87-76 loss to the Vikings in the NSIC South Division regular season finale for Wayne State Saturday afternoon at Rice Auditorium in Wayne.  Augustana is now 11-4 overall and 10-3 in the NSIC South while WSC ends the year at 6-10 and 5-9 in the NSIC South Division.
            Hot shooting Augustana scorched the nets in the first quarter, jumping out to a 14-2 lead on the Wildcats early.
            The first quarter ended with Augustana holding a 31-15 lead thanks to 70 percent (12-17) shooting by the Vikings while WSC struggled to just 5 of 17 to open the game for 29 percent.
            WSC shot better in the second quarter and cut into the Augustana lead as the Wildcats outscored the Vikings 21-16 making 5 of 6 from behind the arc from five different Wildcats, but still trailed 47-36 at intermission. 
            Both teams had scoring runs in the third quarter. 
            Wayne State's came first as the 'Cats trailed 59-46 with 6:27 to go in the quarter, but then scored 11 straight points to get within two at 59-57 at the 3:19 mark. 
            But Augustana responded with a scoring surge at the end of the third quarter and took a 68-59 lead entering the fourth quarter.
            WSC stayed within reach early in the fourth quarter, trailing by five at 71-66 following a pair of Halley Busse free throws with 7:42 to play.
            Augustana then put the game out of reach with a 14-3 run, taking a 85-69 lead with four minutes to play, and reserves closed out the final minutes of playing time in the 87-76 Viking win.
            Halley Busse and Erin Norling each scored 18 points for Wayne State.  With her 18 points, Norling moved into fourth place on the all-time WSC scoring list with 1,597 points, moving past Lisa Chamberlin's 1,586 points from 1990-94.  Josey Ryan also hit double digits with 10 points.
            Wayne State made 25 of 55 shots for 45.5 percent, hitting 9 of 22 3-pointers and 17 of 22 free throws.
            Aislinn Duffy paced Augustana with 22 points followed by Izzy Van Veldhuizen with 16.  Hannah Mitby and Vishe' Rabb each scored 15 points.
            Augustana shot 52.3 percent from the field making 34 of 65 shots.  The Vikings were 11 for 25 from the 3-point line and 8 of 11 at the foul line.
            The Vikings held a 34-30 edge in rebounding over WSC with Busse and Kassidy Pingel grabbing four boards apiece for Wayne State.