University of Mary 72 #4 Wayne State 64

            The University of Mary held a commanding 48-31 advantage in rebounding while holding Wayne State to a season-low 37 percent from the field as the Marauders shocked #4 Wayne State 72-64 in Northern Sun Conference women’s basketball played Saturday evening in Bismarck, North Dakota at the McDowell Activity Center.  The Wildcats suffer their first loss of the season, falling to 9-1 overall and 3-1 in league play, while Mary improves to 5-3 and 2-2 in the NSIC.

            The Wildcats got off to a solid start, taking a 6-0 lead following a Clare Duwelius three pointer just 2:08 into the contest.  Mary responded though and scored 10 of the next 13 points and took their first lead of the game at 10-9 on a McKenzie Foster layup with 11:44 to play in the first half.  WSC then scored the next six points and took a 15-10 lead at the 9:48 mark on a Duwelius jumper. 

            The two teams exchanged the lead until Mary used a late first half run to take the lead at halftime.  After Ashley Arlen made one of two free throws to give WSC 26-25 lead with 3:04 to play in the first half, the host Marauders scored the final six points of the first half to take a 31-26 lead.  WSC finished the first half making just 8 of 27 shots for 29.6 percent.

            The second half began with Wayne State’s Eva Benson making a basket to cut the Marauder lead to three at 31-28, but that’s as close as the ‘Cats would be to Mary the rest of the night.  With Mary leading 36-30 with 17:33 to play, the Marauders took control of the game with an 11-0 run to take a commanding 47-30 lead with 13:29 to play following a jumper by Laura Petersen. 

            The Marauders maintained their double digit lead the rest of the evening until the final 22 seconds when Ali Schwartzwald drained a three pointer to make the final score 72-64.

            Arlen led WSC in scoring with 14 points, but was hounded by Mary’s defense all night long making just 2 of 10 field goals while connecting on 10 of 15 free throws.  Clare Duwelius and Ashton Yossi each finished with 11 points while Eva Benson added 10 points all in the second half.

            WSC shot a season-low 37 percent from the field, making just 19 of 51 shots.  The ‘Cats were 3 of 16 from the three point line and 23 of 30 at the charity stripe. 

            For the University of Mary, Linda Murray scored 20 points to go with 14 rebounds followed by Shaunna Knife with 16 points and six rebounds.  Kayla Schmidt also reached double digits with 14 points for the Marauders, who shot 37.7 percent from the field making 23 of 61 shots.  U-Mary was 7 of 22 from the three point line and 19 of 28 at the free throw stripe. 

            Mary held a commanding 48-31 edge in rebounding over the Wildcats thanks to 17 offensive rebounds.  Murray led all rebounders for the Marauders with 14 caroms while Arlen had nine rebounds for WSC to go with five blocks.    

            Wayne State returns to the friendly confines of Rice Auditorium, where the Wildcats have won 33 straight games, next weekend when the Wildcats host MSU Moorhead Saturday at 4:00 p.m. followed by a Sunday afternoon 2:00 p.m. contest against Minnesota, Crookston.