Wayne State 72 Colorado Mines 48
Ashley Arlen led a balanced scoring attack with a career-high 21 points to power the Wayne State College women’s basketball team in a 72-48 win over Colorado School of Mines at the Super 8 Tip Off Classic in Aberdeen, South Dakota. WSC raced out to a 46-20 lead at halftime and led by as many as 34 points in the second half to cruise past the Orediggers in the win.
After Colorado Mines scored on the first possession of the game to take a 2-0 lead, Wayne State scored 11 straight points on three pointers from Alyssa Fischbach and Ali Schwartzwald and a layup and three pointer from Arlen to take an 11-2 lead with 16:19 left in the first half. The Orediggers would get no closer than five points as WSC raced to a 46-20 halftime lead and several leads of 34 points in the second half before settling for a 72-48 win. The Wildcats held Colorado Mines scoreless for a stretch of 8:26 going from 3:27 in the first half to 15:01 in the second half.
Arlen, a 6-1 sophomore forward transfer from Iowa State, scored a game-high 21 points on 5 of 12 shooting from the field and 9 of 10 at the free throw stripe. Junior center Mara Hjelle added 14 points while sophomore forward Clare Duwelius scored 13 on four three pointers.
As a team, WSC shot 21 of 49 from the field (42.9%) and hit 10 of 18 from the three point line for 55.6 percent. The Wildcats also shot well from the free throw stripe, canning 20 of 24 for 83.3 percent. In the first half, WSC shot a sizzling 55.6 percent (15 of 27) from the field and drained 9 of 12 three pointers to set the tone in the game. WSC had just 14 turnovers and was outrebounded by Colorado Mines 36-29 with Alyssa Fischbach grabbing nine boards to lead the Wildcats.
For Colorado Mines, Brecca Graffney and Savannah Afoa had 12 points apiece while Afoa grabbed 14 rebounds for the Orediggers. Emily Dalton also reached double figures with 11 points. CSM shot 18 of 49 from the field for 36.7 percent and hit just 2 of 8 three pointers. The Orediggers were 10 of 14 at the free throw line and had 25 turnovers.
Wayne State will be in action again on Monday at the Super 8 Tipoff Classic in Aberdeen, South Dakota taking on Colorado Christian at 4:00 p.m.