Morris, MN -- After beating Wisconsin-Superior last Saturday by a score of 70-59, the North Central University (NCU) women's basketball team made the trip out to Morris for another Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) matchup. This time the Rams would take on the Cougars from the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM)and look look to win back to back conference games. However, it would be the Cougars that would prevail as the Rams would drop this one by a score of 67-53, falling to 3-2 in UMAC play.
NCU would start the scoring off in this one as Kaitlyn VanderPloeg would attack the rim off a feed from Kayla Hola. Hola and VanderPloeg would be responsible for the first six points for the Rams but not before the Cougars would gain an 8-6 lead over North Central. NCU would tie things up at 10 and a NiNi Davenport three would give them the lead at 13-11. UMM would answer right back off a layup and a midrange jumper to jump out in front at 15-13. However, Davenport would sink another three as the Rams would go up by one at 16-15. Unfortunately for the Rams, the Cougars would make a layup in the final seconds of the first quarter and North Central would go into the second quarter trailing Minnesota Morris by a score of 17-16.
In the second quarter, the Cougars would open up scoring with a layup. Bryce Brewster would draw a foul and make both of her free throws to make the score 19-18 still in favor of Minnesota Morris. UMM would answer right back with a layup, but the Rams would answer right back with a Caitlyn Ryan three to tie things at 21 apiece. Eventually, NCU would go on a 7-0 run thanks to a pair of layups from VanderPloeg and a three from Mia Mabanag jumping out to a 30-24 lead. Joelle Talso would sink a free throw in the final seconds of the first half as the Rams would head into the locker room with a 31-26 lead over the Cougars.
Coming out of the locker room, Minnesota Morris would look to retake the lead as they would start things off with a layup to cut their deficit down to three. VanderPloeg and Ryan would each make a layup to increase the Rams' lead to 35-28. With the score at 37-34, the Cougars would go on a 5-0 to tie things up at 37-37. Mabanag then drew a foul, making both her free throws to give North Central back the lead. Unfortunately, Morris would go on an 8-0 run to take a 45-39 lead over NCU. UMM would go into the fourth and final quarter with a 45-41 lead over North Central.
Hoping to give the Rams back the lead, Hola would make a layup to cut the Cougars lead to two. Minnesota Morris would answer right back via a free throw and a layup to increase their lead to 48-43. From here, Morris would not look back and go on multiple scoring runs to seal this one as the Rams would drop to 3-2 in conference play losing by a score of 67-53.
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Looking Ahead:
The women will have a quick turnaround as they head to St. Bonifacius to take on the Crown College Polars tomorrow afternoon. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 pm.
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