ST. BONIFACIUS, Minn.-- North Central powered past Crown College on the strength of a solid all-around team performance to earn their first win of the season, 61-46 on the road Thursday night. Good defense and inside/outside scoring from three different players gave the Rams what they needed to earn the win.

North Central slowly overwhelmed the Storm through the first half, holding the home team to 22 percent first half shooting. The Rams lead was as big as 19 in the first stanza when senior guard Shoshana Womeldorf (Lanesboro, Minn./Lanesboro) connected on jumper at 3:17 to play before the half. Sophomore guard Jorie Grenell (Lakeville, Minn./Spring Lake Park) scored 13 of her team high 18 points including connecting on 3 of 4 three pointers in the first half to help give NCU a 33-17 lead going into the locker room.

A sloppy second half allowed the Storm to trim the NCU lead back to just eight with 5:26 to go in the game. But a 10-0 Rams run over the next 3 minutes would push the margin back to 18 with just 2:03 left in the game. NCU would hit 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch to claim the final 61-46 final victory.

Jorie Grenell's 18 points led NCU in the scoring column on her 4-8 three point shooting night. Grenell is shooing better than 50 percent from behind the arc the on year (28-63). Freshman Melissa Kidd (Spring Lake Park, Minn./Spring Lake Park) put up her second double double in the first five games of her career with 13 points and 16 rebounds. Junior guard Elisabeth Trickey (Waseca, Minn./Waseca) added 15 points with 5 assists and 6 steals. Trickey has recorded the best two single season steals totals in program history and is on schedule to break the all time NCU career steals record sometime later in the season, just five games into her third season as a Ram.

Thursday's defensive effort resulted in the lowest opponent scoring total this season as the Rams held the Storm to less than 31 percent shooting from the floor.

NCU is back in action on Friday night with their second home game of the season in a 5:30 p.m. tip off with Finlandia University (Hancock, Mich.). The game is being tagged as "Navy Night" where fans are encouraged to fill the stands dressed in navy as the team looks to continue its momentum toward the Christmas Break.