Wolves Sneak by Skyhawks

November 24, 2006
NAMPA, Idaho- Fort Lewis College gave Northern State all they could handle in the final minutes of the opening round of the Hampton Inn and Suites Tournament held in Nampa, ID. The Wolves improved to 5-0 on the season as they were able to hang on and defeat the Skyhawks 69-67.

The Wolves used two quick runs in the opening six minutes of the game to stretch out a ten point lead, 14-4. As Fort Lewis began to control the ball more effectively, the gap in the score began to stabilize, as Northern maintained a roughly ten point lead. The Wolves shot 44.4% from the field in the first half, connecting on 12 of 27 shots. The Skyhawks went 9-of-26 from the field in the first half for a 34.6% performance. Northern led 29-19 at the intermission.

The action of the second half started out slowly, with just seven points being tallied in the opening four minutes. Northern’s shooting warmed up again as both the guards and forwards got involved in the scoring. Carolin Becker laid in a set of points in the paint and, as the Wolves made a series of defensive stops, Casey Gifford made her way to sink two shots from the charity stripe to put NSU up 39-26 at the 12:47 mark. The Skyhawks nailed back-to-back three-pointers to get to within seven points, but an Allison Johnson long ball brought the difference back to ten points.

The Wolves continued their dominance through much of the second period, leading by as many as 14 points at the eight minute mark. It was only in the waning minutes of the game that the score really began to tighten as Fort Lewis hit shot after shot to get back in the game. With just three minutes of game time remaining, the Skyhawks were down 61-56. Becker and Johnson kept NSU in the game with field goals and free throws, but FLC used the foul game to stand a fighting chance.

In the last ten seconds of the game alone, five points were marked on the free throw line. Jaclyn Arns came through by nailing both of her shots to keep the Wolves up by three points, 69-66, with eight seconds left to play. A Northern foul put Fort Lewis on the line with an opportunity to get back down to a single-point game, but FLC’s Laura Haugen could only connect on a single shot and Northern clung to the 69-67 lead until the clock expired two seconds later.

Freshman Allison Johnson ( Mt. Vernon, SD) scored a career high 13 points in the game, hitting 4-of-8 field goals and shooting a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. Noelle Hall came in second in scoring with 12 points and led the team in rebounds with eight boards. The Wolves shot 48.0% in the game, had eight steals, and 15 turnovers.

Leading the way for Fort Lewis was Lauren Redfern with 22 points from 6-of-11 shooting. Redfern also connected on 9-of-10 free throws. Leading all players in rebounds was Allison Rosel with 12. The Skyhawks shot 40.7% from the field, including a 37.5% shooting performance from long range (6-16). FLC had a slight 35-33 rebounding edge and tallied 10 steals and 13 turnovers.

The Wolves are now 5-0 on the season, while Fort Lewis drops to 1-2 overall. The Wolves will continue in action at the tournament tomorrow afternoon, taking on the winner of the Northwest Nazarene/Hawaii-Hilo game. If NNU takes the win, the Wolves will play at 5:00 pm (MT) tomorrow, otherwise they will tip-off at 3:00 pm.

 

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