Minnesota Crookston women’s basketball shot just 34% from the field while going 3-19 from the three-point line in a 68-58 win in an NSIC game played at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston.
St. Cloud State jumped out to an early 7-2 lead following a three-pointer by Mallie Doucette (Sr., Colfax, WI) with 6:56 left in the first quarter. Minnesota Crookston’s Bren Fox (Fr., Norwood Young America) answered with a lay-up bringing the Golden Eagles within 7-5 before an Isieoma Odor (R-Sr., Bloomington) lay-up made with 7-6 with 3:29 to play in the opening quarter. Paige Cornale (Fr., Oak Creek, WI) tied the game at 8-8 with a lay-in with 2:45 left in the quarter. Tied at 10-10, Madelin Dammann (Jr., Waconia) buried a three-pointer giving the Huskies a 13-10 lead. Following an Odor jump shot bringing UMC back within one, Dammann made another triple to close the first quarter with St. Cloud State leading 16-12.
Kelsey Peschel (Fr., Sauk Centre) opened the second quarter with a three-pointer giving the Huskies a 19-12 advantage. Paige Cornale made a pair of free throws to spark an 8-0 run for the Golden Eagles ending with two more Cornale free throws to give Minnesota Crookston a 20-19 lead. Mallie Doucette countered with a triple for SCSU regaining a 22-20 lead for the Huskies. The Huskies scored seven-straight points to push their lead to 26-20 before a Kylie Post (Fr., Corcoran) free throw brought UMC back within 26-21. Ashley Freund (Soph., Jordan) scored Minnesota Crookston’s final points of the second quarter with a corner three-pointer to pull Minnesota Crookston within 29-24 with 5:10 left in the first half. As UMC’s offense went cold, St. Cloud State managed to close the half with a 6-0 run to take a 35-24 lead into halftime. “There were a couple of miscommunications and a couple of freshman mistakes,” explained Minnesota Crookston head coach Mike Roysland of the first half defense lapses. “We had a miscommunication on an out of bounds play, and they had a couple of flare screens that opened people because our players went underneath as opposed to over the top which we told them to do. They ended up with some wide-open threes, and they knocked them down. It came down to mental mistakes that you can’t afford to do at this particular level.”
Tori Wortz (Soph., Hutchinson) continued the Huskies run with a three to open the third quarter giving the visitors a 38-24 lead. Caitlin Michaelis (Sr., Marshfield, WI) made a jump shot with 7:23 left in the third quarter to pull Minnesota Crookston back within 40-30. The Huskies countered with a. 4-0 run to regain a 14-point lead. Following a Bren Fox lay-up for the hosts, the visitors used a 10-0 run to take their largest lead of the night at 52-32 with 1:20 remaining in the third quarter. Abby Guidinger (Soph., Waukesha, WI) trimmed the Golden Eagles’ deficit with three-straight free throws, but that was erased by another Doucette three-pointer giving St. Cloud State a 55-35 lead after three quarters.
A 6-2 run to open the final quarter allowed St. Cloud State to grow their lead to 61-37 before Kylea Praska (Fr., Thief River Falls) made a three-pointer to cap off a 5-0 run for Minnesota Crookston trimming UMC’s deficit down to 61-42. Trailing 68-44 with 5:30 remaining, the Golden Eagles responded with a 14-0 run to close out the game, but the Huskies’ lead was never threatened as they closed out the 68-58 win. “We had so many good opportunities to make some baskets, and as a collegiate athlete, you can’t miss as many lay-ups as we did,” summarized Roysland. “We had 27 free throws, so we were getting to the rim, we had a whole bunch of open threes, and you’ve got to be able to make plays. You look at the shooting percentages, and you can’t win games when you shoot like that, but I was most disappointed with the opportunities we had, it’s not like this was a difficult situation. We had a bunch of shots blocked from behind. We just didn’t finish very well at the rim, and we didn’t shoot well enough to win this game.”
Minnesota Crookston falls to 8-5 overall and 3-4 in conference play. The Golden Eagles return to the court on Saturday when they host Minnesota Duluth at 3:30 p.m. on KROX. St. Cloud State improves to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in the NSIC.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| St. Cloud State | 16 | 19 | 20 | 13 | 68 |
| UMC | 12 | 12 | 11 | 23 | 58 |
| For UMC | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Isieoma Odor | 11 | 8 | |
| Abby Guidinger | 10 | 3 Steals | |
| Caitlin Michaelis | 7 | 4 | 2 Assists |
| Kylie Post | 7 | ||
| Bren Fox | 6 | 8 | |
| Paige Cornale | 6 | ||
| Ashley Freund | 3 | ||
| Kylea Praska | 3 | ||
| Amber Schoenicke | 3 | 3 | |
| Julia Peplinski | 2 | 2 |
