The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Women’s basketball team had no answer for the MSU-Moorhead Dragons, who kept the Golden Eagles to 7 points in the 4th quarter en route to a 63-48 victory on Gary Sense Court at Lysaker Gymnasium in Crookston.
FIRST QUARTER –
After the Dragons opened the game up with a 3-pointer, Emma Miller (Sr., Albertville) hit two runners in the paint to get the Golden Eagles on the board. Once the Dragons pulled ahead to a 7-4 lead, UMC responded with a 7-0 run, with another MIller Bucket and a 3-pointer from Anna Westby (Fr., Eveleth), putting the Golden Eagles up 11-7. However, the Dragons had an answer, responding with a 6-0 run and taking a 13-11 lead. They also held the Golden Eagles scoreless for nearly 4 and a half minutes, before Westby hit a fadeaway with 59 seconds remaining to tie the game at 13. MSU-Moorhead got one more bucket in the quarter, and took a 15-13 lead into the second.
SECOND QUARTER –
Emma Miller scored the first 3 points of the quarter to put UMC back up by 1, but the Dragons hit a 3-pointer to give the Dragons an 18-16 lead. The theme of the game to this point is that whenever the Golden Eagles would make a shot to retake the lead, the Dragons were able to find an answer. The lead changed 9 times in the first 5:33 of the quarter, and at the media timeout, the Dragons had a 25-24 advantage. After that timeout, no one scored for 90 seconds before the Dragons made a layup to go up 3, and then a huge 3-pointer from the Dragons gave them their largest lead at 4. With under a minute remaining, the Dragons capped off a 7-0 run with two free throws and fantastic defense, and MSU-Moorhead was able to take a 34-26 lead at the half.
THIRD QUARTER –
As the third quarter got underway, points became more scarce than they were before. Both teams were alternating buckets, with UMC getting help from Halle Winjum (Soph., Crookston) at the line, but they were struggling to get on a run to close the gap down any further. Once the Dragons increased their lead to 10 at 42-32, UMC was able to put together a 6-0 run to cut the lead down to 4 at 42-38, backed by Emma Miller, who got her game total to 15 points during this run. A 3-pointer by Riley Jenkins then cut the lead down to 3 at 44-41 with 1:43 to go, but the Dragons once again had an answer, preventing the Golden Eagkes from adding to the scoreboard and putting two more layups in, allowing them to go to the fourth quarter with a 48-41 lead.
FOURTH QUARTER –
Though the Golden Eagle defense was stout throughout the course of the game, the offense became virtually nonexistent in the 4th quarter. The Dragons scored the first 7 points of the quarter before Halle Winjum drilled a 3-pointer to cut the lead down to 11, at 55-44 with 6:37 to go. The Dragons, however, absolutely locked down on defense, and preventing the Golden Eagles from scoring until there were 58 seconds remaining in the game, a 5:39 drought. In this span, the Dragons went on an 8-0 run to blow the game wide open, taking a 63-44 lead. Though UMC scored the final 4 points of the game, that only totaled 7 for the quarter, and that wasn’t enough as the Dragons pulled away for a 63-48 victory.
UMC drops to 3-10 on the year, 2-6 in the NSIC. MSU-Moorhead is now 7-5 on the season, 4-4 in the conference.
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Moorhead | 15 | 19 | 14 | 15 | 63 |
| Crookston | 13 | 13 | 15 | 7 | 48 |
| For UMC | Points | Rebounds | Assists/Steals |
| Emma Miller | 17 | 6 | 2 steals |
| Rayna Klejeski | 11 | 4 | 1 assist |
| Anna Westby | 7 | 2 | 2 steals/1 assist |
| Halle Winjum | 5 | 2 | – |
| Riley Jenkins | 5 | 6 | 1 steal/1 assist |
| Emma Pierson | 2 | – | |
| Hope Dudycha | 1 | 1 | 1 assist/1 steal |
