Huskies Glide Past Wayne State 79-61
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Wayne State (7-17, 4-13 GLIAC) | 13 | 14 | 22 | 12 | 61 |
|
Michigan Tech (16-6, 12-5 GLIAC) | 21 | 18 | 21 | 19 | 79 |
HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech women's basketball team won for the second straight time on Thursday night, defeating Wayne State 79-61 in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest in the SDC Wood Gym. The Huskies had four players post double digit point totals and led for the majority of the contest on their way to the victory.
"I thought there were a lot of good parts throughout the game and as we started to piece them together we were able to build on that over the course of the night," Michigan Tech Head Coach Kim Cameron said. "I thought we started well, but I think we need to improve coming out of the gate at halftime and really set a tone. Overall, I thought we moved the ball really well offensively, we found the open person, and our guards did a nice job of driving into the paint and kicking it back out and getting it back into the paint again. I also felt we were taking the right shots the entire night."
Wayne State (7-17, 4-13 GLIAC) led but once on Thursday night and that came in the first two minutes on a pair of free throws by Shannon Wilson to open the scoring. Michigan Tech (16-6, 12-5 GLIAC) countered with a 7-0 run to go up 7-2 with 7:16 left on the first quarter clock. Junior Lindsay Winter put the Huskies on the board with a triple followed by a jumper from junior Kelli Guy and a layup by sophomore Elizabeth Kelliher.
Tech expanded the gap to double digits for the first time at 14-4 when Winter knocked down another triple off an assist by redshirt junior Brenna Heise with 4:32 remaining in the first quarter. The Warriors then countered with three straight points and stayed within single digits of the Huskies through the remainder of the quarter. Wayne State trimmed the Tech advantage down to five points at 18-13 on a layup by Tyesha Hood with 51 seconds on the clock, but the Huskies grabbed some of the momentum back when Guy drained a trey for the final bucket of the quarter, making it a 21-13 contest through 10 minutes.
In the second quarter, Wayne State closed to within five points four different times before the Huskies put together a strong scoring burst to close the half. Up 28-23 with just over four minutes to go until the intermission, Tech proceeded to score 11 of the final 15 points in the quarter. Guy dialed in a triple and after two free throws from WSU's Shannon Wilson, Kelliher and freshman Baillie McGirk teamed up for back to back layups to make it a 35-25 lead with 2:57 left in the second frame. Senior Morgan Anderson then dropped in a couple of two point buckets for Tech to close the quarter and make it a 39-27 score at the break.
The Warriors kept hanging around through the third quarter and had cut the deficit to seven points at 52-45 on a pair of Nastassja Chambers free throws with 2:25 on the clock. Guy made it a 10-point game again at 55-45 on a trey and then a couple minutes later Winter sent the Huskies in front again by 11 points at 60-49 with a trey for the final bucket of the third period.
Winter's basket proved to be the first three points of a 9-0 run that carried over into the fourth quarter. Winter tacked on another triple to open the fourth followed by a free throw from junior Sarah LewAllen and a layup by junior Hannah Stoll off an assist by sophomore Michelle LaFave. The Huskies widened the gap to 20 points at 75-55 on two free throws from Kelliher at the 3:08 mark of the fourth period. Redshirt freshman Abbie Botz capped the scoring for Tech on a layup with 40 seconds to go.
Kelliher powered Michigan Tech with a game high 21 points on a 9 of 12 shooting night from the field. It's the second time this season that she has scored 21 points and the third time she has eclipsed 20 points. Winter hit four triples on her way to 14 points followed by Guy and Anderson who each chipped in 11 points. Anderson dealt out eight assists and shared the team lead in rebounds with Kelliher and Winter who each had seven apiece.
As a team, the Huskies converted a season best 51.6% of their field goals (33-64), they found the target on 9 of 19 shots from behind the arc (47.4%), and made good on 4 of 6 looks at the free throw line (66.7%). Tech out-rebounded Wayne State 38-32, scored 38 points in the paint, and had 14 second chance points.
Nastassja Chambers paced the Warriors with 15 points and six rebounds followed by India Hawkins who added nine points on the night. Wayne State was limited to a 20 of 54 shooting night from the field (37.0%), made just 2 of 8 attempts from behind the arc (25.0%), and went 19 for 25 at the charity stripe (76.0%).
Thursday night's win keeps the Huskies in a tie for second place in the GLIAC North Division as they go into Saturday's showdown with first place Saginaw Valley State. The tip-off in the SDC Wood Gym is slated for 12 p.m.
