#8 Wayne State 56 Upper Iowa 29

            Wayne State College overcame a slow start offensively to blow past Upper Iowa 56-29 in Northern Sun Conference women's basketball played Friday evening at Rice Auditorium in Wayne. The win improves #8 Wayne State to 22-2, 15-2 in NSIC play, while Upper Iowa falls to 5-16 overall, 4-13 in conference play. Friday night's victory also puts the Wildcats on a six-game winning streak, their second longest of the year.
             
            A slow offensive start by WSC saw Upper Iowa with the early 8-4 lead with 15:19 remaining in the opening half. Layups by Ashton Yossi and Millie Niggeling evened the score at 8-8 just under the 15 minute media timeout.
 
            The two teams traded free throws through the next six minutes, again seeing an even score at 12-12 with 9:22 to play in the first half. A pair of buckets by both Jordan Spencer and Whitney Olson sandwiched an Ellen Hansen layup to give Wayne State their largest lead of the opening half. The Wildcats finished the first frame on an 11-4 run, taking a 23-16 lead into the locker room at the half.
 
            But Upper Iowa came out of the locker room on a run of their own, using a pair of buckets by leading scorer Whitney Kieffer to cut the Wildcats lead to 26-20 with 17:11 remaining in the ball game. From that point on, it would be all Wildcats. A pair of Ellen Hansen free throws and layups by Niggeling and Yossi forced UIU to take a 30 second timeout, trailing 32-20 with 15:05 remaining in the game.
 
            The WSC defense turned up the pressure, not allowing Upper Iowa to score a point in the next ten minutes of the game. During that span, the Wildcats extended their lead to a game-high 31 points, 54-23, with 3:22 remaining. Jaylan Spencer scored six points, while Niggeling, Kara Powell and Jordan Spencer each contributed four points in the 22-3 run. A pair of Powell free throws in the final three minutes finished off the night, WSC with the 56-29 win.
 
            Nine different Wildcats contributed offensively in the win, led by 10 points from both Jordan Spencer and Millie Niggeling. Jaylan Spencer and Ashton Yossi each added nine points, while Kara Powell finished with six. Ellen Hansen (9) and Michaela Barry (8) combined to pull down 17 of the 43 total rebounds by the Wildcats, who out-rebounded UIU 43-37.
 
            Upper Iowa was led by Whitney Kieffer's game-high 14 points and five steals. UIU was held to shooting 20.7 percent from the floor.  
 
            Wayne State finished the game shooting 38.8 percent from the floor, after opening the game shooting just 33.3 percent in the first half. The Wildcats held a 26-14 advantage in points in the paint, 28-8 edge in bench points and a 10-0 advantage in second chance points.
 
                The Wildcats will be home again Saturday hosting Winona State in a 4 p.m. contest at Rice Auditorium.