Wayne State 70 University of Mary 58

            Wayne State College advanced to the championship game of the Northern Sun Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament Friday evening with a 70-58 win over the University of Mary in St. Paul, Minnesota.  The #2 seed Wildcats take a 21-8 record into Saturday’s final while the third-seeded Marauders from Mary finished the season at 17-11.

            The Wildcats used strong defense in the first half to get Mary into foul trouble while forcing the Marauders into 15 turnovers as WSC built a 36-30 lead at halftime.  After Mary’s Kayla Rogers opened the game with a three pointer to give the Marauders their only lead of the game 3-0, WSC scored the next nine points to grab a 9-3 lead.  The Wildcats were able to get Mary’s leading scorer, First Team All-NSIC forward Nicci Landdeck, into foul trouble early in the first half as she picked up her third foul with 13:58 left in the half. 

            “Our defense frustrated them early and we made them play tentative,” commented WSC head coach Ryun Williams after the game.  “We hang our hats on defense and that won the game for us.”

            With WSC leading 13-9 at the 10:16 mark, the Wildcats held Mary scoreless for the next 4:13 to grab a 22-9 lead, their biggest lead of the game, with 6:03 remaining in the first half.  Wayne State maintained a double digit lead until late in the first half when Mary closed the half on a 9-3 run in the final 2:39 of the half to make the halftime score 36-30.

            Mary stayed close to the Wildcats until midway through the second half when WSC put together a key run to put away the Marauders.  UM tied the game at 49-49 with 9:52 left following a layup by Kayla Rogers.  Later in the half with WSC leading 57-55 at the 6:30 mark, the ‘Cats scored nine straight points in a span of 2:10 to take a commanding 66-55 lead and WSC never looked back.  The scoring spurt included a jumper and layup by Laquisha Cook to go with two free throws and a three-pointer by Andrea Schoepf to push the lead back to double digits.  WSC then made free throws down the stretch to seal their 70-58 win.

            “There was no flow to this game, we had too many turnovers and missed shots but we did enough good things to win,” stated Williams.  “We couldn’t get relaxed offensively, but we seemed to gain some composure midway through the second half and I thought the last 8:00 minutes we played Wildcat basketball.  And we shot well from the foul line, which is good to see.”

            Senior guard Andrea Schoepf scored 22 points to lead the Wildcats.  Junior forward Kylee McGill had 17 of her 19 points in the first half and added 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.  However, she suffered a separated left shoulder in the first half but did finish the game although not 100 percent.  “She’s a tough warrior,” commented Coach Williams on the play of McGill.  “She had such a great first half, but we needed her leadership and she wanted to be in there.”  Junior guard Laquisha Cook also reached double figures for WSC with 12 points (10 in the second half).

            WSC shot just 33.9 percent from the field, making 20 of 59 shots from the field and 7 of 20 from the three point line.  The Wildcats were sizzling from the free throw stripe, connecting on 23 of 26 for 88.5 percent. 

            Mary’s top scorer was Kayla Rogers with 18 points.  Nicci Landdeck finished with 11 despite playing much of the game in foul trouble.  The Marauders shot 39.6 percent from the field, connecting on 19 of 48 shots.  UM was 5 of 9 from beyond the arc and 15 of 20 at the foul line.

            WSC held a slight 37-36 edge in rebounding over the Marauders as McGill grabbed 11 caroms to lead the ‘Cats followed by Mara Hjelle with nine.  Mary’s top rebounder was Ashley Fridley with 10 rebounds. 

            The Wildcats had just 14 turnovers in the game while forcing Mary into 22 mistakes.

            Wayne State will advance to the finals of the Northern Sun Conference Tournament on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. against top-seed Concordia-St. Paul, a 71-58 winner over #5 seed MSU Moorhead in the other semi-final Friday evening.