RAPID CITY, SD – Following a week away from competition, the Wayne State College women’s basketball team was right back to work starting a two-game road trip in three days.
From the King Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, WSC visited South Dakota School of Mines & Technology Thursday evening.
After trailing 40-31 at the break, the Wayne State women took control of the second half by outscoring SD School of Mines & Tech 47-25. WSC won 78-65 to improve to 3-1 on the season handing the Hardrockers their first loss now at 2-1.
WSC held a 19-18 advantage after the first quarter but SD School of Mines & Tech won the second quarter battle, 22-12. The ‘Cats then outscored the Hardrockers 26-12 in the third and 21-13 in the final 10 minutes.
Erin Norling posted a career-high 32 points to go along with nine rebounds on 14-25 shooting (2-5 3PT/2-5 FT) leading WSC on the court. Another double figure scorer came from Josey Ryan with 12 points and a team-high three steals (5-7 FG/2-2 FT).
Other scoring came from Brittany Bongartz with nine points and two blocks, Halley Bussey scored eight points and dished out a team-high five assists, Kylie Hammer added six points and seven rebounds, Lauran Zacharias tallied five points, Autumn Mlinar finished with four points and Kassidy Pingel tacked on two points. Awoti Akoi came down with seven rebounds.
WSC shot 32-71 (45.1%) from the field, 5-17 (29.4%) from behind the arc and 9-15 (60%) at the foul line.
Three Hardrockers scored double figures led by Ryan Weiss with 13 points, Anna Haugen added a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds as Naomi Hidalgo tallied 10 points.
SD School of Mines & Tech finished 25-61 (41%) from the floor, 9-26 (34.6%) from the three-point line and 6-9 (66.7%) at the charity stripe.
The Wayne State women are off Friday before next visiting Black Hills State in Spearfish, South Dakota on Saturday, November 23 at 5 p.m.