It was a long, rough road trip for the Wayne State women’s basketball team last weekend, as they dropped two games during a trip into North Dakota.
On Friday, the Wildcats lost on the road to the University of Mary 72-60, as the host Marauders scored the first 10 points of the game and never trailed in the contest.
Wayne State trailed by as many as 15 points in the first period before cutting the deficit to 19-9 after one quarter. Wayne State was able to get as close as six points before the Marauders took a nine-point lead at the half, 37-28.
Wayne State cut the University of Mary lead to just one point with 6:57 to go in the third 41-40 off of a Kylie Hammer layup, but that was as close as the Wildcats would get as the Marauders expanded their lead to as many as 11 in the period and led 61-50 at the end of the third quarter.
Hammer led the Wildcats with 17 points, scoring double digits in her 12th game of the season. Three other Wildcats hit double figures with Maya Fitzpatrick scoring 12, and Logan Hughes and Lauren Zacharias each adding 10 points. Kassidy Pingel and Zacharias each had five rebounds for Wayne State followed by Fitzpatrick and Hughes with four boards apiece.
On Saturday, the Wildcats led for almost the entire game, but Minot State rallied and scored the game winner with 8.9 seconds left to shock Wayne State in a 71-70 decision at the Minot Dome in Minot, N.D.
After a slow start, the Wildcats scored seven straight points to take a 16-11 lead on an Avery Kallman outback with 2:30 to go in the first period. Wayne State closed the period with a 21-18 lead and led 33-31 at intermission.
The third quarter saw Minot State close within one point several times, but WSC answered each Beaver score to stay in the lead.
After Minot State cut the WSC lead to 44-43 at the 4:45 mark, the ‘Cats got back-to-back baskets from Maya Fitzpatrick and another from Kassidy Pingel to push the lead back to seven at 50-43. The host Beavers rallied again and got as close as 50-48 before WSC closed the quarter with a 55-48 lead.
Early in the fourth, five straight points by senior guard Kylie Hammer on a three-point play and layup gave the Wildcats their biggest lead at 64-56 with six minutes to go.
Minot State cut the lead down to a point again, but a trey by Zacharias and a layup by Hammer made it 70-66 with 2:37 to go.
Wayne State had opportunities to put the game away, but two turnovers and four missed shots kept the Dragons within striking range, allowing them to eventually come back and score the game-winner with 8.9 second left. Wayne State had two chances to win in the closing seconds, but shots by Hammer and Hughes both came up empty.
Hammer had 17 points to lead four Wildcats in double figures. Hughes added 13 points while Fitzpatrick and Zacharias chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
WSC held a 43-31 edge in rebounding with a season-high 16 offensive rebounds. Fitzpatrick grabbed eight boards for the Wildcats followed by Zacharias and Pingel with seven each.
Wayne State (7-8) will be at home next weekend, hosting St. Cloud State Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Minnesota Duluth Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Rice Auditorium.
