Women's Hoops Falls to Prairie Wolves
Jan 21, 2019
LINCOLN, Neb . - The University of Dubuque women’s basketball team closed out their road trip with their second game in three days with a 64-79 loss at Nebraska Wesleyan.
The Spartans Miah Smith knocked down a jumper on the first possession of the game to give UD the lead for the opening two and a half minutes but it would not last long as Nebraska Wesleyan followed with an 11-2 run for an early 11-4 led and as many as 14 in the early minutes of the second quarter. Trailing 27-13 with 7:33 remaining before halftime, the Spartans scored eight unanswered points behind three pointers from Lexi Daniels and Abigial Zurcher to get back within six points. However, over the final five minutes of the second quarter, the Prairie Wolves closed the half on a 10-2 run to send the Spartans into halftime down 37-23.
In the first half, the Spartans actually outshot the Prairie Wolves 31.0% to 29.5%, but 18 UD turnovers and 14 offensive rebounds for Nebraska Wesleyan allowed the Prairie Wolves to build the lead that they had.
The Prairie Wolves and Spartans played an even second half with the Nebraska Wesleyan lead holding steady between 12 and 18 points for a majority of the half as the Spartans were never able to make a big run to get back within single digits and back into the game.
Just like the first half, the Spartans closed the game with a better shooting percentage than the Prairie Wolves at 34.9% to NWU’s 33.7%, but the Prairie Wolves 27 second chance points and 27 points off turnovers proved to be too much to overcome.
Kia Dwight had an efficient 16 points before fouling out, as she went 4-8 from the field, 2-3 from three and 6-7 from the charity stripe. Jaden Kelley was right behind with 15 points and Abigail Zurcher rounded out the top three UD scorers with 10 points. Miah Smith nearly missed out on a double-double as she hauled in 10 rebounds to go along with her eight points.
The Spartans return home on Wednesday to take on the Luther Norse at 6:00 p.m.
