WAYNE – As the Wayne State College women prepare for a two-week stretch of road NSIC South Division games, the ‘Cats concluded their home-opening weekend with Concordia-St. Paul Saturday afternoon.
From Rice Auditorium, WSC welcomed in the Golden Bears looking for a home split.
Both teams went on double figure scoring runs in the first half as Concordia-St. Paul held off WSC, 93-86. CSP improves to 4-0 (2-0 South) while Wayne State College fell to 1-3 (0-2 NSIC South).
WSC jumped out to an 11-0 lead before Concordia-St. Paul scored 12 straight as the ‘Cats led 23-22 after the first quarter. CSP then used a 14-0 scoring run in the second quarter outscoring WSC 27-17 in the second to lead 49-40 at half. Wayne State then dominated the third quarter 28-18 while the Golden Bears ended the game with a 26-18 fourth. Final again favored Concordia-St. Paul, 93-86.
Wayne State was led in scoring by senior Erin Norling with 23 points, 13 rebounds and three assists for her ninth career double-double (7-16 FG/4-6 3PT/5-5 FT). She moved into #10 all- time scoring with 1,408 points. Junior Kylie Hammer got her first career-start and went off for 20 points (5-10 FG/1-4 3PT/9-10 FT); senior Halley Busse poured in 19 points to go along with five assists and three steals. (5-9 FG/2-4 3PT/7-8 FT) while junior Autumn Mlinar came off the bench pouring in 14 points (2-8 FG/2-7 3PT/8-8 FT).
Other scoring came from senior Brittany Bongartz with seven points, junior Amelia Ivester with two points and sophomore Josey Ryan with one point.
WSC shot 23-58 (39.7%) from the field, 9-24 (37.5%) from behind the arc and 31-35 (88.6%) at the foul line.
The Golden Bears were led by a trio of double figure scorers including two with 20+ points. Senior Riley Wheatcraft finished with 26 points (9-13 FG/4-5 3PT/4-4 FT), followed by freshman Lindsay Becher with 25 points and eight rebounds (9-12 FG/7-10 FT) and senior Danielle Schaub added 12 points (3-9 FG/1-4 3PT/5-6 FT).
CSP finished 32-62 (51.6%) from the floor, 9-20 (45%) from the three-point line and 20-25 (80%) at the charity stripe.
1st 2nd Half 3rd 4th Final:
22 27 49 18 26 93 – CSP
23 17 40 28 18 86 – WSC
The Wayne State College women will visit Minnesota State-Mankato and Upper Iowa the next two weekends on Friday and Saturday, January 15-16 and 22-23.