MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.-- North Central University Women's Basketball produced a quality defensive effort in a back and forth game but came up just short in a narrow 43-41 home loss to Northland College on Friday night. Both teams owned a lead in the final minute before a three pointer late in the shot clock became the final difference in the game.

North Central (4-11, 1-5) looked poised to get their second Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) victory of the year when they pressed ahead by a 20-11 margin with 6:53 left in the first half. However, a scoreless spell of over nine minutes that included rest of the first half saw NCU fall behind early in the second half.

With 17:16 left in the game a free throw from junior Jorie Grenell (Lakeville, Minn./Spring Lake Park) broke a 9 minute, 10 second scoring drought that spanned the halftime break to put the score at 25-21 in favor of Northland College (5-10, 3-3). Eventually the Rams would tie the game at 27 on a pair of free throws from sophomore Melissa Kidd (Spring Lake Park, Minn./Spring Lake Park) at 12:10 left in the game.

Freshman Shelby Norman (Winsted, Minn./Watertown-Mayer) gave NCU a 29-27 lead the for the first time in the second half with a pair of free throws on the next possession. The two teams would tie or take the lead six times over the remaining time before Northland converted what proved to be the game winning shot.

With 31 seconds left Jorie Grenell got an acrobatic lay-up to fall to give NCU a 41-40 lead. It looked like the Rams were in the midst of stiffling the Lumberjills on defense when senior Sarah Hoge got a glimpse of day light to convert a wing three pointer to give Northland a two point lead with 18 seconds left.

NCU missed a contested shot at the rim with 10 seconds left and the Jills cleared the rebound to secure the win.

Senior Elisabeth Trickey (Waseca, Minn./Waseca) and Jorie Grenell each scored a game high 14 points. Freshman Jamie High (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo) led NCU 8 rebounds.

The Rams return to action on Saturday with a 3 p.m. UMAC game versus The College of St. Scholastica (Duluth, Minn.)