For Immediate Release: January 26, 2007 St. Bonifacius, MN – The University of Minnesota-Morris women’s basketball team cruised to a 68-28 win over Crown College in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) action in St. Bonifacius Friday night.
The win, the fourth in a row for the Cougars, moved them into a first place tie in the league coupled with a win by Presentation College over Northwestern College and a Bethany Lutheran College loss to Northland College.
Minnesota-Morris held the Storm scoreless over the first 8:30 seconds of the game with opening up a 15-3 lead.
The Cougar defense forced Crown into 11 turnovers before the Storm hit their first basket of the game.
UMM led by as many as 21 in the first half before taking a 32-14 lead into the locker room at the break.
Defensively in the first half, the Cougars held Crown to just five field goals and scored 17 of their 32 points off turnovers.
Baskets by Alaina Benson and Christina Odegard extended the Cougar lead to 36-14 with two minutes gone in the second half and the Cougars were well on the way to the win.
In the second half, UMM shot 41.7 percent (15-of-36) from the floor and limited Crown to only three field goals and 14 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes of the game.
Minnesota-Morris had a huge 34-2 advantage on points in the paint and 33-7 in points off turnovers while out rebounding the Storm 46-26.
The 28 points is the fewest allowed in a game this season by the Cougars.
A very balanced attack for the Cougars as four player reached double figures in the game led by Annika Bergman with 14.
Marissa Maynard added 11, Coresa Leighty and Christina Odegard chipped in with 10 apiece as every Cougar that played scored. Odegard just missed a double-double with nine boards.
Jamie Rainey had seven steals.
Minnesota-Morris (8-8, 5-1 UMAC) will take on Northwestern College Saturday, January 27 at 3:00 in St. Paul.
Newspaper Box Score UMMWBK vs CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 1-26-07 5:30 pm at Crown College At Crown College UMMWBK 68, CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 28 UMMWBK (8-8 (5-1 UMAC)) Bergman,Annika 7-17 0-0 14; Maynard,Marissa 4-10 2-3 11; Odegard,Christina 5-11 0-1 10; Leighty,Coresa 4-9 2-3 10; Benson,Alaina 4-14 0-0 8; Swenstad,Kristie 2-2 2-4 6; Anderson,Arielle 2-8 0-0 4; Rainey,Jamie 1-4 0-0 3; Norris,Kara 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 30-78 6-11 68. CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN (4-13 (0-7 UMAC)) AMY BROWN 3-4 0-0 9; ANGIE HOSTETTER 1-3 4-6 6; BRONWYN WEISS 2-6 2-2 6; MEGAN DELLOS 1-8 0-0 3; JENNY MOLL 1-4 1-3 3; STEPHANIE ZROKA 0-6 1-4 1; KARRIE MEIXL 0-3 0-0 0; MISSY HERRITY 0-0 0-0 0; CRYSTAL EWING 0-1 0-0 0; BRITTNEY ALVERSON 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 8-38 8-15 28. UMMWBK........................ 32 36 - 68 CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN........... 14 14 - 28 3-point goals-UMMWBK 2-13 (Rainey,Jamie 1-1; Maynard,Marissa 1-3; Benson,Alaina 0-6; Bergman,Annika 0-3), CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 4-4 (AMY BROWN 3-3; MEGAN DELLOS 1-1). Fouled out--UMMWBK-Rainey,Jamie, CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN-MEGAN DELLOS. Rebounds-UMMWBK 46 (Odegard,Christina 9), CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 26 (BRONWYN WEISS 8). Assists-UMMWBK 12 (Benson,Alaina 4), CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 6 (ANGIE HOSTETTER 3). Total fouls-UMMWBK 16, CROWN COLLEGE WOMEN 12.