by OMAHA, Neb. – Hot-shooting Northwestern College jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter and never looked back on its way to a 90-46 win Saturday over College of Saint Mary.
The Red Raiders, ranked No. 3 in the country, shot 61 percent in the opening quarter to post a 27-9 advantage in that frame. Northwestern outscored CSM 23-13 in the second quarter for a 50-22 lead at the intermission.
The Flames played better in the third frame and outscored the visitors 17-16, before Northwestern bested CSM 24-7 in the final frame to win the Great Plains Athletic Conference contest.
“We played well in the third quarter and really showed some hustle,” CSM Coach Kirk Walker said. “But we couldn’t sustain it.”
Northwestern shot 51 percent in the game compared to CSM’s 33 percent and also outrebounded the Flames 44-22.
“Our effort to rebound was not good and our valuing the basketball was not good with our turnovers,” Walker said.
One bright spot for the Flames was the shooting of Tyler Sumpter (Cheyenne/Arapaho). Sumpter had a game-high 18 points for CSM.
“It was a good game by Tyler,” Walker said. “She shot the ball really well. We just can’t seem to string good games by multiple people together.”
CSM’s next high scorer was Dani Carlson (JR/Elkhorn, Neb.) with six. Trista Merrival (Oglala/Lakota.) led the Flames with five rebounds and Alyssa Laudato (JR/Palm Bay, Fla.) had a team-high four assists.
Kassidy De Jong led Northwestern with 17 points. Four Red Raiders scored in double digits and nine scored at least six points or more.
Northwestern improves to 11-2 in the GPAC and 17-2 overall. CSM drops to 1-11, 2-17.
