Lions pounce on Huskies 75-59

ST. CHARLES, Mo. - Shooting struggles continued for Michigan Tech women's basketball Sunday evening in a 75-59 road loss to Lindenwood University at Hyland Arena. Julia Ruzevich led the Lions with 24 points and the Lions shot 55-percent overall to earn the win, overwhelming Michigan Tech by a 26-13 margin in the second quarter. Ellie Mackay had 26 points for MTU after scoring 18 points Saturday at Drury. The Huskies have lost three straight games for the first time this season.

Tech started with a 15-11 edge in the first quarter. The Lions lifted their offense after a slow start and connected on 74-percent of their second-half shot attempts. Despite defensive adjustments in the third quarter by the Huskies, Lindenwood maintained a 20-point advantage heading into the final 10 minutes. Tech applied a full-court press and forced a series of Lindenwood turnovers late, but ran out of time to close the gap.

Michigan Tech converted 2 of 13 shots from beyond the arc (15-percent) and was outmuscled 40-27 in rebounds. Rusevich collected her fifth double-double of the season with 13 boards and shot 10-for-21 with three steals. Devin Fuhring also contributed 21 points (7-for-13), four rebounds, and two steals for the Lions.

In contrast to Saturday night, the Huskies limited their turnovers to 11 but failed to take advantage of 18 Lindenwood turnovers. Katelyn Meister posted 17 points and seven rebounds in the loss and Alex Rondorf pitched in 10 points and three rebounds.

Michigan Tech (8-4, 3-1) returns to conference play January 6 when they host Wisconsin-Parkside at 5:30 p.m. at SDC Gymnasium. Lindenwood (5-5, 2-1 GLVC) is idle until January 2. Sunday was the first meeting between the two teams. The Lions made the jump to NCAA Division II in 2013 from NAIA.