A cold shooting performance by the Briar Cliff women’s basketball team was too much to overcome, as the #20 Chargers fell to #12 Northwestern 70-59 in Orange City, Iowa Wednesday night. BC falls to 5-3 on the season and are 3-1 in GPAC play.
“We battled tonight and just came up a few points short,” said head coach Brita Hand. “A couple more 3’s or layups that we normally make go in and we have a completely different outcome.”
Northwestern took an early 16-8 lead, but a trey from Cadence Davis followed by back-to-back buckets from Emma Sterkel and Konnor Sudmann brought the Chargers within one point. The Red Raiders held a 21-19 after the first quarter. The Cliff shot 64.3% from the field but committed seven turnovers leading to nine Red Raider points. BC did most of their damage in the paint scoring 14 points in the lane.
After scoring five points in the opening two minutes of the second period, the Chargers ran into offensive struggles and scored just six points over the final eight minutes. The Cliff shot just 28.6% from the field, compared to 66.7% shooting from Northwestern. The Red Raiders held a 38-30 edge at halftime.
The Cliff started to chip away at the Red Raider lead halfway through the third quarter. Trailing by 11 they used a 9-0 run to pull within two at 48-46. Elaina Martinez knocked down two straight treys and Grace Oken capped off the run with a 3-pointer of her own. The Charger offense stumbled in the final period, managing just nine points as Northwestern took the 11-point win.
Deitchler scored 16 points on 8-of-14 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. Sudmann added eight points and four boards. Mya Hendry had a game high five offensive rebounds and 13 total boards. The Chargers shot just 22.2% from the 3-point line and 50% from the free throw line.
BC held an edge in bench points 25-17 and second chance points 15-10. The Red Raiders had an advantage in points off turnovers 23-10 and paint points 32-30.
“We have some things we can still cleanup and get better at, we still haven’t played our best basketball for 40 minutes,” said Hand. “Our group is battling hard and will continue to get better. We need to bounce back on Saturday and pick up a road win against a much improved St. Mary’s team.”
Northwestern was led by Devyn Kemble’s 18 points and was finished 100% from the field, 3-point line and charity stripe. Molly Schany added 14 points and Taylor VanderVelde had 13.
Briar Cliff heads to Omaha, Nebraska Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip-off against College of Saint Mary.
Briar Cliff Women fall to Northwestern
