Milwaukee, WI -- The North Central University (NCU) women's basketball team opened their 2023-24 campaign on the road with a matchup against the Alverno College Inferno. This would be the first night of competition for both squads. Last year, these two teams met in Minneapolis, where the Rams would take care of business picking up the 65-33 victory. Tonight would be much of the same as NCU would dominate in pretty much every statistical category to cruise to an 81-37 win to start the year.
The Rams would get on the board first in this one as the junior
Kaitlyn VanderPloeg hit a mid-range jumper to start things off. NCU would go on to score 8 straight unanswered points before the Inferno would score. The Rams would do a great job of attacking the rim in the first quarter of play as all their points would come from inside the paint or at the charity stripe. North Central would lead Alverno 16-4 after the first.
Getting things done on both ends, freshman guard
NiNi Davenport would have herself a good start to the second quarter as she would record 8 points, a steal, and a block in five minutes of action. With eight minutes to go, NCU would go on an astounding 31-2 run to stretch their lead all the way to 39 points heading into the half. The Rams would shoot 68.42% from the field and 100% from both the three-point line and free-throw line in quarter two. They also would hold Alverno to just 10 points in the first half. North Central led 49-10 heading into the break.
Coming out of halftime, NCU would keep their foot on the gas. The Rams would get back-to-back threes from backcourt duo
Bryce Brewster and
Mia Mabanag. They each would have 7 points in the quarter to lead the way for NCU. Alverno still not able to find any real rhythm offensively would only manage 10 points in the 3rd quarter and North Central would lead 68-20 heading into the fourth.
After a layup from VanderPloeg and a pair of buckets from the transfer
Savi Rael, North Central would have their largest lead of the game at 54 points. With the game very much in NCU's control, head coach
Leah Szabla would look to her reserves to finish the rest of this one. Alverno would turn it on towards the end of this one and actually outscore the Rams 17-13 in the quarter, but all for not as the spread was just too large to overcome. North Central would walk away with their first win on the new season as they defeated Alverno 81-37.
Top Performers:
Looking Ahead:
The women host their home opener this Saturday, November 11th as they take on the Carleton College Knights at 1:00 p.m.
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