Women's Basketball Falls to #14 Wartburg in Season Finale
Feb 16, 2019
DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque women’s basketball team closed their season with a 00-00 loss to the #14 Wartburg College Knights on Saturday afternoon.
Kia Dwight made a driving lay-up a minute into the game for the first basket of the game to give UD the 2-0. That lead would last for 24 seconds before Wartburg converted on a lay-up of their own. The two teams would trade three pointers for their next baskets to be knotted at five all before the Wartburg showed why they were the #14 ranked team in the country. The Knights would score 14 of the next 15 points over a three minute span and put the Spartans behind 27-13 after the opening quarter.
The Knights run continued into the second quarter, where the Spartans were limited to just 14 points and went into halftime trailing, 57-27. The pace slowed down in the second half and the Spartan defense stepped up, limited Wartburg to just 31 second half points, while the UD offense would outscore the Knights in the second half by one point.
Abigail Zurcher was the lone Spartan to reach double figures in scoring, dropping 11 on 4-10 shooting. Miah Smith finished the season with yet another double figure rebound performance, grabbing 10, six offensive and four on the defensive end. Smith pitched in seven points to go with her 10 rebounds. One of the few upperclassmen for the Spartans, Kia Dwight scored nine points and dished out a team-high four assists.
After allowing the Knights to shoot 71.0% in the first half, the Spartans limited Wartburg to just 38.7% shooting for the second half and 2-13 (15.4%) from three. The Spartans shot 31.8% from the field on the afternoon, sinking 21 of 66 shot attempts.
The Spartans close the 2018-2019 season with a 3-22 record. UD did not have any seniors and expects to return 100% of each statistic in 2019-2020.
