Bismarck, ND—The University of Mary women's basketball team (11-6, 9-5 NSIC) extended their conference winning streak to six with a win over the University of Minnesota Crookston (7-11, 4-10 NSIC) Saturday evening. U-Mary started slow, but a strong second half effort fueled the Marauders to a 76-68 win.  
 
After being outscored by five in the opening half, the Marauders outscored the Golden Eagles by 13 in the second, with the majority coming from the free throw line. U-Mary was 23-of-33 from the line in the second half alone.
 
For the second straight night Brittney Dietz was the Marauders top scorer. The sophomore scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field in 37 minutes of play.
 
Katrina Moenkedick paced the Golden Eagles attack with 18 points on 8-of-18 shooting. The UMC forward also had a team-high seven rebounds.
 
With the Marauders beating the Golden Eagles by an average of 20 points per game over their last four meetings, Minnesota Crookston easily could have been intimated. However, the Golden Eagles held nothing back as they built a 17-11 lead six minutes into the game.
 
A spark off of the bench all night, freshman Dani Clarke tied the game at 19-19 with a three on a pass from Lindsey Sand. Taylor Henningsgard, also a freshman, gave U-Mary its first lead of the night at 22-21 with a jumper inside with 9:15 left until halftime.
 
The Marauders led by as many as four after Dietz scored on three straight possessions, but the Golden Eagles responded scoring the final five points of the half to take a 43-38 lead entering the break.
 
Both teams attempted 36 field goals in the first half, but UMC made 18 to U-Mary's 15. The Golden Eagles also had a 23-19 edge on the glass.
 
U-Mary retook the lead just two minutes into the second half, but UMC kept battling as it tied the game at 50-50 with a three-point field goal with 14:00 minutes left to play. The Marauders responded with a 12-2 run that was capped by a three from Clarke.
 
Leading by 10 with 8:24 left to play, U-Mary built its lead to as many as 11 and never allowed UMC to come closer than eight as it held on for a 76-68 win.
 
The Marauders held the Golden Eagles to just 24 percent shooting in the second half, while also forcing 10 turnovers. U-Mary made just six field goals in the second half, but made up for it with 23 made free throws.
 
For the game U-Mary and UMC shot nearly identical at 38 percent and the Golden Eagles had just one more rebound than the Marauders. U-Mary made two more threes than UMC. The real advantage for the Marauders came as they made a season-high 29 free throws on a season-high 40 attempts.
 
Scoring 13 points, Sand was the only other player in double figures for U-Mary. Linda Murray struggled to find her stride from the field, but grabbed 14 rebounds for the second consecutive night. The Marauders bench came up big as Clarke (9) and Henningsgard (8) each finished with career-highs in scoring. Clarke played a career-high 26 minutes and committed just one turnover, while recording three assists. Sloan Turner was also key off the bench adding eight points and nine rebounds.
 
U-Mary will be on the road next weekend as it takes on Minnesota State University, Mankato on Friday, Jan. 31 and Concordia University, St. Paul on Saturday.

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