Courtesy of Midland Athletics
FREMONT, Neb. – In an early week conference matchup, Midland University hosted Northwestern College inside the Wikert Event Center on a Tuesday night. The Warriors fell short in a Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) match-up to the Raiders by a score of 107-71. The loss drops Midland to 0-3 in the GPAC and to 2-5 overall. The Raiders see their record improve to 3-0 and 7-0.
The Warriors were first to put points on the board with a three-pointer by Lexi Kraft but the Raiders quickly responded with a three of their own. After swapping two-point baskets, Northwestern went on a 10-2 run to take control of the contest.
Near the end of the quarter, Rubie Klausen converted an old-fashioned three-point play with a layup and a free throw to put the lead to three points. After ten minutes of action, Northwestern held a 24-19 lead.
The teams traded points through the early stages of the second before things started to snowball in favor of the visiting Raiders. With 2:12 left before halftime, they turned an eight-point lead into 17 with a 10-2 run.
After the intermission, both offenses came out firing. The Raiders and Warriors went back and forth. Northwestern’s lead continued to grow as they picked up a few defensive stops and converted at the free-throw line to make it 81-59 heading into the final quarter of play.
As has been the case this season, the Warriors’ offense couldn’t keep up with the high-powered Raiders in the fourth. Northwestern outscored Midland 26-12 to cap off their 107-71 win.
Emma Shepard led the way offensively with 13 points off the bench. She was joined in double figures by Erin Prusa with 11. Prusa added a team-high five assists to go with three rebounds. As a team, Midland shot 27-of-61 (44.3%) from the field, while Northwestern made 44-of-70 (62.9%).
“I thought we did a good job in the first quarter. We know they’re going to score points and we were able to do that,” commented head coach Shawn Gilbert post-game. “Even in the second quarter, we kind of got going back and forth with them. We talk so much about maintaining or winning at the end of quarters, and Northwestern really took it to us the last two or three minutes before halftime. It was really hard to get back to them. We scored 25 in the third but the deficit was already there. We’ve got some work to do on the defensive side. We need to get a lot tougher, stop drives, and not allow their guards to post us up wherever they want to. We’ll take a few days off for Thanksgiving and then get back in the gym and work on our fundamentals.”
Midland (2-5, 0-3 GPAC) will take a short break before traveling up to Yankton, South Dakota to take on Mount Marty (2-7, 0-4 GPAC) next week. The Warriors take the floor inside Cimpl Arena on November 30 for a 6:00 p.m. tip against the Lancers. Last year the two teams split their season series with each team winning on their home floor.
