Women’s Basketball Wins GPAC Conference Tournament, Earns Nationals Berth

Photos by Anyssa Neustel

by Chris Johnstone

Second-ranked women’s basketball took on the seventh-ranked Dakota Wesleyan Tigers inside Walz Arena for the Great Plains Athletic Conference championship and won 78-77.

Quinn Wragge had 18 points on 7-8 shooting from the field along with 12 rebounds. Freshman Philomena Lammers poured in 19 points to lead the Bulldogs in scoring.

The last time both teams met was Sunday Feb,12 in Mitchell, South Dakota, where the Tigers beat the Bulldogs by 22, which was the only conference loss of the season for the Bulldogs.

On Tuesday night, the Tigers forced the game into overtime and with less than one minute to go, Lammers swished two free throws for the win.

“Going into overtime, I thought our team handled it really well,” Wragge said. “We all kept our composure and just went out and played our hardest for five more minutes.”

Rylie Olthus hit some big shots for the Tigers, totaling 21 points. However, the Bulldogs tallied a shooting percentage of 40.6 percent.

“Preparing for this game, we watched some film on what we did last time and changed our press to better fit what they were going to do,” Wragge said. “We also came into the game with a ton of motivation and energy and thankfully it paid off!”

The Bulldogs celebrated with the fans storming the court and then cutting down the nets.

“Getting the plaque was celebration enough for us,” Wragge said. “It was an awesome game, but now we are going to set our minds on our next game which will be at nationals. We will find out today who and when we play so we can prepare for them. It’s going to be a fun week!”

The Bulldogs now have a chance to celebrate as regular season GPAC champions and postseason GPAC champions. The Concordia women finish the regular season with a 31-2 record and a perfect home record.

The Bulldogs will play eighth-seeded Bryan College on Wednesday, March 8. Tip-off is set for noon at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.