Sioux Falls edged Wayne State 70-68 in overtime in a Northern Sun Conference women's basketball game played Tuesday evening at the Stewart Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as both teams closed played before the holiday break.  The host Cougars are now 4-7 and 2-5 in the NSIC while WSC drops to 4-6 and 1-6 in league games.
            The host Cougars jumped out to an early 10-4 lead in the contest and held a pair of seven-point leads in the opening quarter before finishing with an 18-13 lead.
            Wayne State came back in the second quarter, making 7 of 11 shots (63.6%) in the quarter and rallied to take a 31-29 lead at intermission.        
            The 'Cats trailed 20-15 two minutes into the second quarter, but took their first lead in the quarter at 27-26 on a Jordon Heckert basket with just over three minutes to play in the half.  The Wildcats ended the half with a 31-29 lead thanks to a Rachel Dahlen basket to end the half.
            A Tate Norblade basket to open the third quarter gave WSC a 33-29 lead.  But Sioux Falls stormed back and scored 10 of the next 11 points and took a 39-34 advantage at the 7:21 mark of the quarter. 
            WSC battled back to even the score at 41-41 on a Maya Fitzpatrick basket and after USF built the lead back to five several times the 'Cats closed to within one at the end of the third quarter trailing 48-47.
            The Wildcats started the fourth quarter strong and built their biggest lead of the game at six, 59-53, with five minutes to play on a Dahlen jumper. 
            Sioux Falls then scored the next 10 points, turning a six-point deficit into a four-point lead, at 63-59 with two minutes to play.
            A Britney Ho turnaround jumper cut the Cougar lead to two at 63-61 and heroics by Ho sent the game into overtime as she converted a second-chance layup following a miss by Carsyn Boswell with two seconds to play sending the game into overtime knotted at 63-63.
            Sioux Falls scored the first four points of the extra session to take a 67-63 lead, but WSC responded and scored the next five points on a 3-pointer by Ho and a pair of free throws from Fitzpatrick to take their lone lead of overtime at 68-67 with 1:31 remaining. 
            A three-point play by Sioux Falls on the next possession gave USF a 70-68 lead with 1:19 to play.  WSC forced a shot clock violation and had one last chance to tie or win the game but a 3-pointer from the right wing by Ho as time expired bounced off the back of the rim giving the Cougars a 70-68 win.
            Fitzpatrick poured in a career-high 22 points for Wayne State, making 6 of 12 shots from the field and 7 of 8 free throws.  Britney Ho also hit double figures with 14.
            Wayne State made 26 of 64 shots for 40.6 percent, going 6 of 13 from the 3-point line and 10 for 12 at the free throw stripe.
            Madison Wuebben scored 15 points for Sioux Falls followed by Ayla Brown and Brecli Honner with 14 each.
            Sioux Falls shot 39.4 percent from the field making 28 of 71 shots.  The Cougars were 7 of 24 from the 3-point line and 7 of 10 at the foul stripe.
            USF had one more rebound than WSC 41-40.  Rachel Dahlen and Carsyn Boswell each had six boards for the 'Cats.  Fitzpatrick handed out six assists while Dahlen posted a career-best four blocked shots.
            The Wildcats resume play following the holiday break on Friday, January 5^th hosting Minnesota Crookston in a Northern Sun Conference contest at Rice Auditorium starting at 7:30 p.m.