Senior guard Clare Duwelius hit a three pointer as time expired to give #2 Wayne State College a thrilling 62-59 win over Augustana College Sunday afternoon in the NSIC Sanford Health Women's Basketball Tournament Championship Game played at Taylor Arena in Rochester, Minnesota. It's the third NSIC Tournament title for the 29-2 Wildcats, who earn an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The official NCAA selection show is slated for 9:00 p.m. Sunday evening to announce the 64-team national tournament field. WSC entered this week's play as the top seed in the Central Region and will likely host the NCAA Central Regional starting Friday in Wayne.
The game was close early as the two teams exchanged one tie and four lead changes. But the Wildcats held Augustana scoreless for a stretch of 6:29 midway through the first half and surged ahead of the Vikings thanks to the hot shooting of freshman guard Ashton Yossi.
With the score tied at 17-17 with 9:39 to go in the half, Ashley Arlen and Whitney Epp hit back-to-back jumpers for a 21-17 Wildcat lead. Yossi then scored eight of the next 10 points for the Wildcats, hitting a pair of three pointers followed by a steal and layup that gave WSC a 30-19 lead with 2:41 remaining in the first half. The 'Cats built a pair of 12 point leads in the final minute of the first half before Augustana's Molly Hayes made a long three pointer right before halftime to give the Wildcats a 35-26 lead at halftime.
Augustana came out strong in the second half and scored the first nine points of the half to tie the score at 35-35 on a Lydia Nelson basket with 14:57 left in the game. Wildcat freshman center Whitney Epp ended the Wildcat scoring drought of 5:27 to open the second half and hit a jumper to put the 'Cats back in front 37-35. From this point on, neither team held a lead of more than four points with the game going right down to the wire.
The Vikings scored the next five points to take a 40-37 lead on a three point play by Molly Hayes. With Augustana leading 42-39, WSC scored six straight points and took a 45-42 lead on a Duwelius jumper with 10:22 to play. The 'Cats went up several times by four points, but each time Augustana battled back to even the score. The Vikings forced the game's fifth tie at 55-55 with 1:50 to play. But WSC regained the lead at 57-55 on a pair of Ellen Hansen free throws with 1:17 remaining. Augustana's Alex Feeney answered and tied the score at 57-57 on a jumper with 1:01 to play.
Epp put the 'Cats back up when she converted a putback off a miss by Ashley Arlen, giving WSC a 59-57 lead with 37 seconds to play, but Feeney canned a 10 foot turnaround jumper in the lane with 20 seconds to play knotting the score at 59-59.
After two Augustana fouls and a pair of WSC timeouts, the Wildcats inbounded the ball with 2.7 seconds to play as Epp threw the ball cross court to Duwelius, who drained a three pointer from the left wing as time expired to give Wayne State the thrilling victory.
Epp, a 6-6 freshman center from Carlisle, Iowa, led a balanced scoring attack for WSC with a career-high 14 points, going 7 for 7 from the field. She also grabbed seven rebounds for the 'Cats. Another freshman off the bench, guard Ashton Yossi, chipped in with 13 points, all coming in the first half. Duwelius finished with 11 points along with Ashley Arlen, who added 11 rebounds for her 13th double-double of the year.
WSC finished the game making 25 of 56 shots from the field for 44.6 percent. The 'Cats were 6 of 22 from the three point line and 6 of 8 at the charity stripe.
Augustana's top scorer was Alex Feeney with 22 points followed by Molly Hayes with 13 and Lydia Nelson 11. The Vikings were 21 of 63 from the field for 33 percent, making 6 of 23 three pointers and all 11 free throw attempts.
WSC had one more rebound than Augustana College 38-37. Arlen had 11 rebounds with Epp adding seven for WSC while Augustana's top rebounder was Faith Tinklenberg with eight. Wildcat senior guard Alisha Brown was credited with nine of Wayne State's 18 assists to tie a career-high.