Wayne State women's basketball came down to the end of the game against Augustana with AU topping WSC 80-77 inside Rice Auditorium on New Year's Eve. Wayne State falls to 9-3 on the season with a 5-3 record in the NSIC South Division. Augustana with the win moves to 12-2 on the season with a 6-2 NSIC South Division record.
            The Wildcats opened the game on a 7-2 run after a Logan Hughes three-pointer at the 8:27 mark in the first quarter. WSC would leas by as many as seven in the first quarter at 13-6 right before the media timeout at 5:07 in the first quarter. Augustana would take their first lead of the quarter at 14-13 with 2:15 left to play. AU built the lead to 19-15 by the end of the first quarter.
            Wayne State would battle back to tie up the game at 20-20 in the second quarter behind five points from Lauren Zacharias with 7:24 left in the quarter. WSC would take the lead on their next possession behind a shot from behind the arc from Maya Fitzpatrick to make it 23-23. WSC would take a 26-23 lead into the media timeout at 4:59 mark of the second quarter. WSC increased the lead to as many as five in the quarter, but the Vikings battled back to tie it at 29 with 1:36 left to play in the half. WSC scored the last five points of the half to make it 34-29 at halftime in favor of the Wildcats.
            At halftime, Fitzpatrick and Zacharias would each have eight points to lead WSC while Fitzpatrick, vanDonkersgoed, Hughes, Zacharias, and Pingel all had two rebounds for WSC. Wayne State was shooting 38.5 percent at halftime to Augustana's 40 percent.
            Augustana would open up the second half on a 8-0 run to force Wayne State to take their first timeout of the half at the 7:59 mark of the third quarter. WSC would break the 10-0 run after a driving layup from Zacharias to cut the lead to three with 7:34 in the third quarter. The two teams would trade baskets all the way to the media timeout where WSC had the lead 48-46 with 4:35 left in the third quarter. Another 8-0 run from the Vikings built the lead to 54-48 before WSC cut it to one at 53-52 with 3:15 left in the quarter. The Vikings would increase the lead heading into the fourth quarter leading 64-56.
            The Vikings would build their lead to nine to open the fourth quarter at 67-58 with 8:30 left to play in the game. Wayne State would cut into the Vikings lead by the media making it a seven-point game behind an Abby Kopecky layup from Zacharias with 5:10 remaining in the contest. The teams would trade baskets out of the media timeout before WSC cut the AU lead to 73-70 with 2:07 left to play in the game. The Vikings would build the lead back up to six with 1:53 left in the game before a big turnover from AU led to a Pingel three-pointer to make the Viking lead two with 51 seconds left in the contest. Wayne State would get as close as one at 78-77 before AU hit three free throws making it 80-77 with two seconds left. Fitzpatrick was just short on the game tying three pointer with no time remaining giving the Vikings the 80-77 victory.
            Zacharias and Pingel would each have 18 points to lead Wayne State while Kopecky, vanDonkersgoed and Zacharias each added four rebounds. Pingel would have three assists to lead the Wildcats while Fitzpatrick had five steals for the 'Cats.
            Wayne State shot 41.2% in the game to Augustana's 49.2%. Wayne State was 10-24 from three (41.7%) to Augustana's 9-19 (47.4%). WSC lead at the free throw line making 25-32 shots to AU's 11-24.
            The Wildcats hit the road next weekend for NSIC cross division games at MSU Moorhead Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Northern State Saturday in a 3:30 p.m. contest.