UMC Women’s Basketball’s fights off late surge, holds on to beat Northern State

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Women’s basketball team nearly lost a 22-point lead but made clutch free throws down the stretch to hold on and beat the Northern State Wolves by a score of 79-74 at Lysaker Gymnasium.

FIRST QUARTER –
As the game started, Nicole Hernandez and Riley Jenkins went right to work, scoring the first 6 points of the Game for the Golden Eagles. However, in response, the Wolves quickly scored 6 of their own to tie the game with 5:37 left in the quarter. From there, Jenkins began to take over on all sides of the ball. She hit a three to give UMC the lead back, and then recorded a steal and converted two free throws to put the Golden Eagles up 11-6. That’s where things began to take off for the Golden Eagle offense, as they got a 3-pointer from Hernandez and another layup from Jenkins, who recorded 11 first quarter points. All of this led to the Golden Eagles taking a 19-12 lead into the second quarter.

SECOND QUARTER –
UMC got out of the blocks quickly in the second half, as a deep three from Willow Thiel and a tough layup from Hernandez gave the Golden Eagles a 24-12 lead. Those would be the first 5 points of an 8-0 run to open up the quarter for the Golden Eagles. Northern State would try to respond, but the offensive assault of UMC was continuing to pull away. Riley Jenkins added to her first half total with 8 more points, putting her up to 19. After Madelyn Bragg hit a jumper to cut the lead to 9, UMC went on their best offensive run of the game, as they went on a 17-6 run for the final 3:54 of the half. Big 3-pointers were hit by Hernandez and Hope Dudycha, but none were more impressive than Emma Miller, who threw the ball in from 80 feet out at the buzzer, giving UMC a 48-28 lead at the end of the half.

THIRD QUARTER –
UMC was hopeful that the full-court buzzer beater would have provided momentum for the second half. Unfortunately for them, the Wolves were able to find another gear and put together their best quarter of the game. A Nicole Hernandez jumper gave UMC a 52-30 lead with 7:33 remaining. From there, however, things picked up for Northern State, as they went on a 20-6 run in the final 7:33 of the quarter. Points were scored by Rianna Phillipi, who had 9 points and 3 steals in the quarter, as well as Izzy Moore and Michaela Jewett. Northern State recorded 5 steals in the first 5 minutes, and held the Golden Eagles to just 5/14 from the field and without a free throw attempt. A Willow Thiel layup in the final seconds allowed the lead to be a bit more manageable, as the Golden Eagles took a 58-50 lead into the 4th quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER –
The fourth quarter was the most evenly-played quarter of the game. Thiel hit another layup to start, bringing her total to 16. From there, teams traded buckets until a Madelyn Bragg layup cut the lead to 5, at 62-57. Northern State would close the lead to 2 before a big Hope Dudycha 3-pointer extended the lead to 5. Teams traded buckets again until the UMC lead was 68-64 with 4:54 remaining. From there, neither team scored for the next 3:11 until the Wolves cut the lead to 2 with 1:43 remaining. From there, it became a free throw shooting escapade for the Golden Eagles, as the Wolves repeatedly fouled in the final minute of the game. However, the Golden Eagles were up to the task, as they went 11/16 from the free throw line in the final 1:21 of the game. The Wolves continued to hit shots, but two Thiel free throws in the final second sealed the deal for UMC, as they get the win 79-74.

UMC improves to 9-15 on the season, and crucially, 7-11 in the conference as they push for a playoff spot. Northern State drops to 14-9, 11-6 in the conference.
For postgame comments from Golden Eagle head coach Natalie Moynihan, click below.