The Wayne State women’s basketball team stumbled on the road over the weekend, dropping a pair of games to fall to 4-9 overall and 1-9 in NSIC action.
On Friday, Northern State used a 47-30 advantage in rebounding to claim a 62-53 victory over the Wildcats in Aberdeen, S.D.
The hosts led the entire first quarter, building an early 11-3 lead. Northern State was still in front 20-13 with just over two minutes left in the quarter when Wayne State closed the quarter strong with a basket by Maya Fitzpatrick and back-to-back baskets from junior Tate Norblade to cut the Wolves’ lead to 22-19 at the end of the quarter.
The Wildcats carried their momentum into the second quarter as Norblade hit a 3-pointer to go with a layup followed by a Rachel Dahlen basket for a 26-22 lead at the 7:24 mark of the quarter.
Northern State’s defense took charge at that point, holding the Wildcats scoreless for more than 3 1/2 minutes while going on a 9-0 run to take the lead for good at 31-28. The Wolves ended the first half with a 36-32 lead.
Northern opened the third quarter scoring the first six points that led to a 13-2 run in the first 6:20 to push the lead to 49-36 and led by as many as 16 before the Wildcats cut the lead to nine at at 56-47 on a Carsyn Boswell jumper with 5:59 to play.
That would be as close as the Wildcats would get, however, as Northern State pushed the lead back to 13 points and finished with the nine-point win.
Norblade led Wayne State in scoring with a career-high 17 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and a perfect 5-for-5 at the stripe. Boswell also hit double figures with 10 points. Northern State was led by Rianna Fillipi with 18 points followed by Madelyn Bragg with 15 and Decontee Smith with 11 points.
Rachel Dahlen had six caroms for WSC to go with two blocked shots.
On Saturday, host University of Mary started strong and never let Wayne State get into the game as they cruised to a 73-40 win in Bismarck, N.D.
The host Marauders made 9 of their first 12 shots to sprint to a 24-12 lead. Wayne State tried to match their hosts in the second period, but Mary responded and took a 44-27 lead into the locker room.
Wayne State never got hot enough to make a game of it in the second half. Mary limited Wayne State to just 13 points in the final two periods and away with the easy win.
Boswell was the top scorer for Wayne State with seven points on 3-of-6 shooting. Abby Kopecky and Kylah vanDonkersgoed each had four rebounds for the ‘Cats while vanDonkersgoed handed out a team-high four assists.
Wayne State is on the road again next weekend, playing at St. Cloud State Friday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at Bemidji State at 3:30 p.m.
