St. Cloud, Minn. – The Northern State women's basketball team rounded out regular season action with a 64-46 road victory against St. Cloud State. The fourth-straight win clinched second place in the North Division for the Wolves who finished 16-6 in the NSIC and are currently 20-6 overall on the year. The Huskies capped off conference play going 9-13 in the league and are currently 11-15 overall.
After the first ten minutes of action, Northern State doubled St. Cloud State score by tallying 22 points in the first quarter. The Wolves were outscored in the next quarter, however maintained the 38-32 lead to enter the half.
NSU held the Huskies to just one made field goal in the third quarter to extend their lead to 17 points entering the final ten minutes of play. Northern State grabbed their largest lead of 21 points with 3:06 remaining in the contest. The Wolves defense held SCSU to a shooting percentage of just 8.3 in the second half to seal the 64-46 victory.
As a unit, NSU shot 42.9 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from the three-point arc and 92.3 percent from the charity stripe, while scoring 32 points in the paint, 13 points off turnovers, 15 points off the bench and 12 second chance points. The Wolves outrebounded the Huskies 44-25 in the match.
Junior
Miranda Ristau netted a career-high 29 points, hitting 11-of-17 from field goal range and going a perfect 7-for-7 from the foul line. Ristau also picked up nine rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal on the night.
Jessi Marti had a career night as well for the Wolves, matching her career-high 11 points and bringing down six defensive boards.
Jill Conrad followed up with eight points of her own, while nabbing a team-high 11 rebounds.
Brianna Kusler and
Paige Waytashek each put in five points each for NSU.
Jill Conrad,
Paige Waytashek,
Brianna Kusler,
Brynn Flakus and
Gabby Laimer collected three assists a piece to aid the Wolves offensively.
Northern State will advance to the first round of the NSIC Conference Tournament where they will host Upper Iowa at 6 p.m. from Wachs Arena on Wednesday, February 22nd.
