ST. PAUL, Minn.-- Women's Basketball built a halftime lead and then watched it quickly disolve in a rough third quarter of a 75-60 loss at The University of Northwestern on Saturday. In the Rams first game of the 2016 portion of their schedule, North Central played a gritty and determinded first twenty minutes but Northwestern blew the game open midway through the third quarter and the Rams would never recovered.

After leading 29-25 at halftime the Rams allowed a 25-5 by Northwestern in the middle of the third quarter and were outscored 32-13 in the third stanza. Though the Rams were even (18-18) in the final quarter, the damage had been done in a hard loss in the first game of 2016.

KEY SEQUENCE OF THE GAME

Northwestern hit a pair of three throws that made it 46-37 in favor of the hosts with 2:45 remaining in the third quarter. The Rams would then commit turnovers on their next five possessions giving the Eagles three easy buckets to make it 52-37 with 1:35 left in the quarter.

That surge would be decisive as UNW would lead by as many as 26 midway through the final quarter and North Central never threatened again.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Sophomore Lizzy Swanson continues to be one of the best pure scorers in the UMAC after posting 24 points on 9-19 shooting.
• Sophomore Marissa Kari recorded her first double-double of the year with 10 points and 13 rebounds
• Senior Jamie High had a tough night shooting just 4-15 from the floor, finishing with 9 points and 9 rebounds
• Northwestern recorded 14 steals and forced 22 North Central turnovers

KEY PERFORMER OF THE GAME

On a difficult night to see key performances Marissa Kari recording her first double-double of the season deserves recognition.

Though it was a tough night for Jamie High the senior did reach a historic plateau on Saturday night. With her nine rebounds in Saturday's contest, she became just the second player in NCU history to reach 1000 career points and 1000 career rebounds.

Currently she is second all time on the career rebound list (1007) and fifth on the all-time scoring list (1296). She needs 24 points to move to fourth all time.

UP NEXT

North Central will be back in action next weekend when they travel to the southern end of the UMAC for a pair of conference games. Friday NCU plays at Martin Luther College (New Ulm, Minn.) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday the Rams take on Bethany Lutheran College (Mankato, Minn.) at 5 p.m.