MINNEAPOLIS – Wrapping up a busy week of women's hoops, the North Central University (NCU) Rams welcomed the Crown College (CC) Storm to their home floor on Saturday evening. In a contest that saw consistently strong defensive effort from the Blue and Gold through 40 minutes of action, the Rams paced the Storm to a final score of 70-35.

Game Recap

In their largest margin of victory of the 2019-20 season, NCU found no trouble finding their third UMAC win on the season against CC. Through the first few minutes of action, the Storm held their own and traded leads until about the 15-minute mark. From that point on, a collective effort from multiple Rams on both ends of the floor was showcased. The Rams ran away with the lead and never looked back. With seven minutes left in the second quarter, back-to-back threes by Bethany Shield and Allison Bulthuis gave the Rams a strong advantage by putting them up 16 points over the Storm. In addition to this, North Central held Crown to 13 points for almost eight minutes of action played throughout the second quarter. This resulted in the Blue and Gold heading into halftime with a resounding 41-18 lead.

The second half said much of the same story as the first. In the third quarter, the Rams held the Storm to 6 total points while the Blue and Gold managed to knock down 3 threes. This manufactured the Rams' lead to 32 with 30 seconds left in the quarter. With three minutes left in the fourth quarter, head coach Paul Brunner did a full 5-man substitution and was able to dig a little deeper into his bench to work on his rotations. As the game winded down, key players off the bench such as Micayla Jones, Tyshana Rey, and Felicia McKenzie followed in the starters' footsteps and continued the Rams' defensive efforts by only allowing Crown to scrap together five points in the final remaining minutes.

Key Performer(s)

• Allison Bulthuis recorded 14 points and 5 assists to lead NCU's offensive efforts.
• Emily DiGiorgio is considered a walking double-double at this point. The lengthy and agile junior dropped 14 points in addition to 10 rebounds.

Looking Ahead

With the win, NCU women's hoops improves to 6-7 overall and a +.500 UMAC record of 3-2. As the team looks ahead to their next opponent, they will be making the trip to Mankato, Minn next Wednesday to go head-to-head with the Bethany Lutheran College Vikings. The Rams will go into the game looking to build off a massive conference win today and keep it going against an always competitive Vikings squad. The nightcap is set for a 7:15pm tip-off.