Women's Basketball Stumbles at Northwestern St. Paul
Dec 21, 2019
ST. PAUL, Minn. - The University of Dubuque women’s basketball team closed out the weekend road trip with a 81-64 loss at the hands of Northwestern St. Paul.
The Northwestern St. Paul Eagles came out on fire with their first four baskets coming from behind the arc, but UD’s defense kept it close, forcing seven first quarter turnovers to survive the Eagles barrage of threes and trail just 17-16 after the opening frame.
The Eagles lead would balloon to as many as 13 with 1:31 remaining in the second quarter but the Spartans went on a run over the final 90 seconds. Three pointers from Josie Thomas and Morgan Meerstein, and Spartans making three of four free throws down the stretch, pulled the Spartans within six at halftime. Jaden Kelley continued to be a force on offense, leading the UD with nine points at halftime, meanwhile the UD defense caused havoc and forced 15 turnovers in the half.
Back-to-back lay-ups from Abigail Zurcher and Kennedy Lintvinoff just under a minute into the third quarter cut the Eagles lead down to five but Northwestern would score the next 11 points and the Spartans could only score 11 points in the quarter and fell behind 65-42 after the third. The Spartans were never quite able to make a run in the fourth quarter and ultimately fell, 81-64.
After nine first half points, Jaden Kelley finished with a team-high 13 points. Josie Thomas connected on 3-9 three pointers for nine points and Kennedy Litvinoff followed up with eight points of her own.
The UD defense forced Northwestern into 26 turnovers and scored 19 points off of those turnovers. The Spartans bench would go on to outscore the Eagles bench by a staggering, 36-12 margin.
The Spartans will now travel out west to Santa Cruz, Calif. For the New Year’s Classic hosted by UC-Santa Cruz. UD will take on Pacific on Sunday, Dec. 29th and UC-Santa Cruz on Dec. 30th.
