Wayne State junior Paige Ballinger scored her 1,000th career point as part of a game-high 22-point effort to help Wayne State beat Bemidji State 85-61 Wednesday in the opening round of the Northern Sun Conference tournament at Rice Auditorium.
The Wildcats trailed 8-6 early in the game, but went on a 14-1 run to take a 20-9 lead with 4:06 to go in the quarter and never looked back.
Maggie Lowe ended the first quarter with a running 3-pointer from 25 feet away to make it 27-13, and the Wildcats maintained a double-digit lead from there as Wayne State shot 54.5 percent from the field in the easy win.
Ballinger’s 22 points led four Wildcats in double figures, with Anna Martensen adding 21, Kacie O’Connor putting in 15 and Maggie Schulte adding 13.
O’Connor had six assists and Martensen had nine rebounds for the 22-6 Wildcats. Ballinger had six blocked shots in the game, moving her into second place on the school’s all-time blocks list with 137.
The Wildcats play Minnesota Duluth in the quarterfinals of the NSIC tournament on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in the Sanford Pentagon at Sioux Falls, S.D.
First-round results and Saturday’s quarterfinals are as follows (seed in parenthesis):
Wednesday’s First Round
(N1) MSU Moorhead 71, (S8) Southwest Minnesota State 35
(S4) Sioux Falls 65, (N5) St. Cloud State 51
(S2) Wayne State 85, (N5) Bemidji State 61
(N3) Minnesota Duluth 83, (S6) Minnesota State 73
(S5) Winona State 64, (N4) University of Mary 59
(S1) Augustana 70, (N8) Minot State 61
(N6) Minnesota Crookston 77, (S3) Concordia-St. Paul 73
(N2) Northern State 58, (S7) Upper Iowa 29
Saturday’s quarterfinals at Sioux Falls Pentagon
12 p.m. – University of Sioux Falls vs. MSU Moorhead
2:30 p.m. – Wayne State vs. Minnesota Duluth
5:30 p.m. – Winona State vs. Augustana
8 p.m. – Minnesota Crookston vs. Northern State
