Wayne State 82 Upper Iowa 68
The Wayne State College women's basketball team went on a 17 point run in the seond half of the ball game to defeat Upper Iowa 82-68. Junior Renee Wood from Fullerton, California, had a career high 13 points off the bench in the victory for WSC. The win makes the Wildcats 12-4 overall and 5-4 in the NSIC and the loss drops the Peacocks to 1-15 overall and 0-10 in the NSIC.
The Wildcats shot out to an early 7-0 lead in the opening minutes of the first half. But then the Peacocks battled back to tie the score at 8-8 at the 13:57 point of the first half. The teams would then battle back and fourth with the Wildcats jumping out to a 42-32 led in the first stanza.
In the second half the Peacocks battle back in the opening minutes and gave the Wildcats all they could handle, at the 9:36 mark of the half Jennifer Herrick hit a three pointer to cut the Wildcats lead to one. Wayne State then started to get offensive expanding their lead to a game high 20 points at the 3:13 mark of the second stanza. The Wildcats held the Peacocks scoreless for nearly five minutes in the half from the 9:36 mark to the 4:15 mark of the half to pull away and win 82-68.
Wayne State shot 44.8 percent (26 of 58) from the field, 36.8 percent (7 of 19) from the free point line and 79.3 percent (23 of 29) from the free throw line. The Wildcats out rebounded the Peacocks in the ball game grabbing 43 boards to Upper Iowa's 34. The Wildcats had 18 turnovers in the game, but had 10 steals on the evening. WSC also had 29 bench points on the night compared to only 13 for the Peacocks.
Upper Iowa shot 38.9 percent (28 of 72) from the field, 33.3 percent (5 of 15) from the three point line and 77.8 percent (7 of 9) from the free throw line. The Peacocks committed 16 turnovers on the night with seven steals. Upper Iowa managed 16 second chance points.
The Wildcats had had four players in double figures on the night, with two players earning a double-double. Junior Mara Hjelle earned her fourth double-double of the season with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Hjelle grabbed eight offensive boards and went 10 of 11 from the free throw line. Sophomore Ashley Arlen scored 19 points and 12 boards, Arlen shot 7 of 16 from the field on the night. Wood was third on the Wildcats in scoring with 13, Wood went 3 of 5 from the three point line and 4 of 4 from the free throw line. Junior Alyssa Fischbach rounds out Wildcats in double figures adding 12 points to go along with six rebounds.
Upper Iowa was led by Paige DeVine who had 17 points on the night, Devine was 7 of 12 from the field on the night. Kenya Howard earned a double-double, Howard who ranks third in the NSIC in scoring had 16 points on the night to go along with 12 rebounds. Lana Otting had seven points on the night to go along with nine assists.
Wayne State returns home next weekend for Northern Sun Conference games at Rice Auditorium against Minnesota State Friday night and Southwest Minnesota State Saturday night.
