UMC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SEASON ENDS WITH LOSS AT SIOUX FALLS

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Women’s basketball team turned in an outstanding effort, but the red-hot University of Sioux Falls Cougars were too much and won their ninth game in a row 89-74 in the first round of the Northern Sun Conference playoffs in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  “We had too many turnovers and missed too many shots at the rim,” said UMC Coach Mike Royland. “We had a great effort, Sioux Falls is just too good of a team to have bad turnovers and miss easy shots.”

Sioux Falls took an early 4-2 lead before UMC’s Kylie Post (Fresh. Corcoran, MN) made a free throw and Paige Weakley (Jr. Kearney, Mo) buried a three-pointer for a 6-4 Golden Eagle lead just shy of three minutes into the game.  Sioux Falls answered with a three-pointer, but Crookston’s Caitlin Michaelis (Sr. Marshfield, Wis) answered with a three-pointer of her own for a 9-7 lead.  The teams were tied at 11 and 13 and Isieoma Odor (Sr. Bloomington) picked up her second foul and Sioux Falls ended the quarter on an 11-5 run to take a 24-18 lead going into the second quarter.  “They were able to turn some of our turnovers into easy points,” said Coach Roysland. “They took advantage of Isieoma on the bench and made a run at the end of the quarter.”

Sioux Falls started the second half with a three-pointer for a 27-18 lead before Odor followed with five straight points.  Sioux Falls followed with seven straight points to build a 35-23 lead halfway through the half, but UMC answered with a 7-0 run of their own with a pull up jump shot from Post, two free throws from Odor and a long three-pointer from Michaelis and the Golden Eagles trailed 35-30 with 2:14 left in the half.  Sioux Falls took a 40-32 lead into halftime.  “We had things going with that run and we were playing solid basketball,” said Coach Roysland. “What happened at the end of the half is we had some ungodly turnovers and they expanded the lead again.”

UMC started the second half with two Weakley free throws and a basket from Paige Cornale (Fresh. Oak Creek, Wis) to trail 40-36.  The teams would battle for the next six or seven minutes and after five straight points from Michaels and Post, the Golden Eagles trailed 53-50.  Sioux Falls, as they did the entire game, had an answer and ended the quarter on a 9-2 run and the Cougars took a 62-52 lead into halftime.

UMC tried to make some runs in the fourth quarter and got within seven points several times, but Sioux Falls had an answer each time and the Cougars made their free throws down the stretch to pull away for the 89-74 victory. “We were expending so much energy to try to get back in the game and when we got there, Sioux Falls would pull away again,” said Coach Roysland. “We would get close and make some critical mistakes and couldn’t recover.”
UMC will graduate three seniors with Isieoma Odor, Caitlin Michaelis and Maria Delgado. “We will miss them and Isieoma’s numbers speak for what kind of career she had and to stay five years to finish out her career and take up another major tells you how much basketball means to her,” said Coach Roysland. “Caitlin finished her career with a solid game and has been a key part of this program for the last four years and will be missed. Maria has been battling injuries and didn’t get to play as much as she would have liked, but she was a great teammate.”

UMC’s season comes to an end with a 10-19 record.  Sioux Falls improves to 22-7 on the year and will play Wayne State on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls, SD.