Wayne, Neb. — The Wayne State Wildcats women’s basketball team lost on the road to the University of Mary 72-60. Wayne State falls to 7-7 overall and 2-4 on the road while the Marauders improve to 10-9 and 7-0 when playing at home.
The Wildcats opened the first quarter allowing the Marauders to score the first ten points, trailing 10-0 with 5:53 left in the first quarter. The University of Mary pushed the lead to as many as 15 points before Wayne State cut the lead back to 10 at the end of the first period, 19-9.
The University of Mary kept the lead around 10 for most of the second quarter, with WSC cutting it to six before ultimately trailing 37-28 at halftime.
Wayne State cut the University of Mary lead to just one point with 6:57 to go in the third 41-40 off of a Kylie Hammer layup. The Marauders expanded their lead to as many as 11 in the period and led 61-50 at the end of the third quarter.
During the fourth quarter the Wildcats were not able to cut the Marauder’s lead to less than seven as the University of Mary took the win 72-60. The Marauders led the game starting from the first shot attempt less than 10 seconds into the contest
Wayne State shot 34.9 percent (22-63) from the field and 31.6 percent (6-19) from behind the arc in the contest while the University of Mary shot 45.5 percent (25-55) from the field and 34.8 percent (8-23) from downtown. WSC made 10-16 free throws (62.5 percent).
Wayne State had one more steal than the University of Mary (9-8) while the Marauders had a 16-14 advantage on assists. The University of Mary had 10 more rebounds than WSC 42-32 while Wayne State held a 32-28 edge in points in the paint.
The ‘Cats were led offensively by Hammer with 17 points, scoring double digits in her 12th game of the season. Three other Wildcats hit double figures with Maya Fitzpatrick scoring 12, and Logan Hughes and Lauren Zacharias each adding ten points.
Kassidy Pingel and Zacharias each had five rebounds for Wayne State followed by Fitzpatrick and Hughes with four boards apiece.
The Wildcats will close out their NSIC road trip Saturday evening with a 5:30 p.m. contest at Minot State.
