Thanks to career-high nights from junior guard Lauren Zacharias and junior forward Kassidy Pingel, the Wayne State women’s basketball team rallied in the fourth quarter for a 75-70 win over Concordia-St. Paul Friday evening at Rice Auditorium.
The tightly-contested game featured 13 ties and 11 lead changes between the two clubs.
The first quarter saw WSC lead most of the way, holding a four-point lead at 13-9, before the visiting Golden Bears surged late to take a 16-15 lead.
Wayne State’s biggest lead of the second quarter was three at 25-22, but CSP used a 14-2 run late in the second quarter to build an eight point lead at 36-28 with 1:40 to play in the half. The ‘Cats scored the final six points of the quarter to cut the Golden Bear advantage to two at intermission, 36-34.
Wayne State held the lead just once in the third quarter, 38-37 on a pair of Kassidy Pingel free throws with 7:43 to go in the third.
CSP built a seven point lead at 50-43 with 3:28 to go third quarter before closing with a 54-51 lead entering the fourth stanza.
The Golden Bears held the lead for most of the fourth quarter, but a Wildcat rally from a 61-53 deficit in the final five minutes helped the Wildcats claim the win.
Two free throws from Lauren Zacharias, a 3-pointer by Abby Kopecky and a Pingel basket in just 1:27 gave WSC a 65-64 lead.
The two teams traded several leads, but with CSP leading 69-67 with 1:46 to play the Wildcats took the lead for good on a Zacharias 3-pointer to make it 70-69. WSC sealed the win in the final 30 seconds, going 5-of-6 at the foul stripe as Zacharias went 3-of-4 and Pingel 2-of-2.
Zacharias paced WSC with a career-high 22 points, 15 coming in the second half. She also grabbed a career-best eight rebounds. Pingel also produced a career-high with 18 points, including a perfect 7-of-7 at the stripe. Wayne senior guard Kylie Hammer also hit double digits with 16.
CSP held a slim 38-36 edge in rebounding over the Wildcats. Pingel had nine boards for WSC with Zacharias hauling in eight.
On Saturday, Minnesota State came to town and claimed a 63-52 win over the Wildcats.
Turnovers haunted Wayne State as the ‘Cats couldn’t put together enough to take down the Mavericks.
Wayne State started the opening period slow, only scoring four points, trailing 17-4 at the end of the first.
Wayne State came out in the second period and outscored Minnesota State 19-11 in the frame, cutting the lead to three with 36 seconds remaining before ultimately trailing 28-25 at halftime.
The Wildcats started the third by again cutting the lead to three before the Mavericks started to pull away. In the period the Mavericks outscored WSC 19-11 to take a 47-34 lead after three quarters.
Wayne State got as close as eight with 7:435 to go at 47-39, but could not get any closer as the Mavericks finished off the win.
Hammer led Wayne State’s offense with 25 points. Pingel had 10 rebounds.
Wayne State (6-3, 3-2 NSIC) is on the road next weekend playing NSIC South Division games at Winona State Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and Upper Iowa Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
