Wayne native Kylie Hammer had a career game on the road Saturday to help the Wayne State women’s basketball team split two road games in Northern Sun Conference play.
Hammer scored a career-high 22 points and Wayne State outscored Concordia-St. Paul 28-14 in the fourth quarter to rally for an 83-74 win Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.
The first half was a tightly contested matchup featuring seven ties and five lead changes. Concordia-St. Paul jumped to an early 7-2 lead, but Wayne State scored nine straight points for an 11-7 lead and closed the first quarter with an 18-17 lead.
Although the Wildcats held the advantage much of the second quarter, the lead was no bigger than five points and the Wildcats needed a pair of Hammer free throws to end the half with a 39-38 lead.
Wayne State pushed the lead to six early in the third quarter at 49-43 following a Hammer 3-pointer at the 5:39 mark, but Concordia-St. Paul went on a 17-3 scoring run over the next 4:15 to take a 60-52 advantage.
The Golden Bears took their biggest advantage of the game at 64-55 with 8:30 to go when Wayne State went on a game-decisive scoring surge, outscoring the Golden Bears 16-2 and capping it with treys from Halley Busse and Hammer to make it 71-66 with 3:42 to go. Concordia-St. Paul could get no closer than four after that.
Hammer finished the game with a career-high 22 points, missing just one shot in the contest. She was 7-of-8 from the field, 3-of-3 behind the arc and 5-for-5 at the foul line. Brittany Bongartz contributed her second double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds, including 9-of-9 at the stripe. Erin Norling added 18 points with Busse chipping in 11.
Wayne State won the rebounding battle over CSP 40-35 thanks to 11 boards from Bongartz and nine by Norling. Autumn Mlinar and Busse were each credited with three assists while Awoti Akoi had two of Wayne State’s six steals.
In Friday action, Wayne State shot just 30 percent in the first half while Minnesota State built a 20-point halftime lead before settling on a 79-69 win over the Wildcats.
Wayne State hit just 5 of 18 shots in the opening quarter as the host Mavericks built a 19-11 lead. Minnesota State continued to take advantage of the Wildcats’ shooting woes, building a 47-27 lead at the intermission and cruising to the 10-point win.
Norling led Wayne State with 13 points, her 37th consecutive game scoring in double figures. Busse and Bongartz also reached double figures for the Wildcats with 11 points apiece.
Wayne State (14-6, 9-5 NSIC) will be at home this weekend, hosting NSIC cross-division games against the University of Mary Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Minot State Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
