Women's Basketball Edged By Nebraska Wesleyan
Jan 20, 2018
DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque women’s basketball team suffered yet another heartbreaking loss, losing to Nebraska Wesleyan 65-61.
After a quick 6-0 start for the Spartans, Nebraska Wesleyan cranked up their defense, going into a full court press which startled the Spartans and NWU finished the first quarter on a 21-4 run. From the midway point of the second quarter and on the Nebraska Wesleyan would stay above 10 points and would get to as many as 20 in the third quarter before taking a 15 point lead into the final quarter.
After the Prairie Wolves scored on the opening possession of the fourth quarter to give themselves a 17 point lead, the Spartans began to chip away. UD went on a 9-0 run over the next three and a half minutes. The UD defense continued to slow the NWU offense and would cut the NWU lead to as little as five with 2:31 remaining after one of Lexi Daniels’ seven three pointers. UD had chances to shrink to lead even more but could not convert and a NWU jumper and layup down the stretch would end any chance the Spartans had. The Spartans outscored the Prairie Wolves 25-14 in the final frame but the spark came a little too late.
UD’s Lexi Daniels led all scorers with 21 points. Daniels did not attempt one shot inside the three point line, going 7-12 from beyond the arch. The 21 points are a career-high for Daniels. Her previous career-high came in her freshman season last year against Transylvania when she posted 17 points. Morgan Boer was right behind Daniels, finishing with 19 points on 8-13 shooting with three three pointers, while also hauling in a game-high eight rebounds. Abbey Meyer just missed out on a double-double for the Spartans, finishing with eight points, seven assists and five rebounds.
UD actually outshot Nebraska Wesleyan by a decent margin, holding the Prairie Wolves to 37.7% (26-69) from the field and 25% (6-24) from three, while the Spartans shot 44.2% (23-52) from the field and 47.8% (11-23) from behind the arch. Despite forcing Nebraska Wesleyan into 23 turnovers in the contest, the Spartans turned the ball over a season-high 31 times.
This was the Spartans fourth straight loss but all four losses have been five points or less. The Spartans will look to get over that hump on Wednesday, January 24th, when they travel to Indianola to take on Simpson College at 6:00 p.m.
