Northwestern College Upends No. 10 Concordia Women’s Basketball
by Garrett Suchanek
For the first time in the 2016 calendar year, the No. 10 Concordia women’s basketball team lost. The Bulldogs (12-4, 7-4) kept the game close, but a third-quarter explosion by Northwestern College opened the game up and the Red Raiders never looked back on their way to a 100-80 victory.
The Bulldogs got off to a good start and held an 11-4 lead midway through the first quarter. However, the first of many runs by the Red Raiders gave Northwestern a 14-13 lead going to the second quarter.
In the second quarter, it was back and forth action and no team could gain a lead larger than six. Although it was a tight game, the Bulldogs only led a total of 20 seconds in the quarter and went into halftime trailing 39-34.
The third quarter proved to be the turning point of the game. The Red Raiders held the Bulldogs to two points in the first three minutes while scoring 14 points to give Northwestern a 17-point lead. Over the next two minutes Northwestern was able to extend its lead to as many as 22 points. Despite Concordia’s struggle offensively, the Bulldogs chipped away at the Red Raider lead and went to the fourth quarter trailing 76-65.
Concordia continued to trim away at the Red Raider lead and cut the deficit to five with 5:56 left in the game. However, Northwestern responded with a 13-0 run to crush any comeback chance of the Bulldogs. The Red Raiders went back and forth in the final couple minutes of action, but won convincingly 100-80.
Concordia was outshot and outrebounded on the day. Northwestern shot 60.3 percent and hauled in 38 rebounds while Concordia shot 41.8 percent and collected 25 rebounds.
The Bulldogs were paced by sophomores Mary Janovich and Brenleigh Daum, who finished with 18 and 16 points respectively.
Concordia will look to return to its winning ways when they travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to take on College of Saint Mary at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13.
