Box Score Bismarck, N.D. — Led by a barrage of three-pointers, the University of Mary rolled past Northern State University 78-66.
Ali Collins led the Marauders with a game-high 24 points and a career-high 11 assists. Collins 11 assists is the most any player has recorded for U-Mary since Abby Reiter's 13 against Crown College on December 20, 2008.
Alison Kusler led the way for the Wolves (4-2, 0-2 NSIC) with 18 points on seven of 12 shooting.
Exchanging leads early on, U-Mary took the lead 26-25 on a three pointer from
Taylor Luke with 3:34 remaining in the first half. Less than a minute later Collins hit her third three-point basket of the half to give the Marauders a four-point lead. U-Mary led by as much as eight before entering the half up 33-27. Collins scored 13 points in the first including hitting three of her four three-point attempts.
Building on their first half momentum, the Marauders started the second half with a 13-3 run to extend their lead to 48-30. On the run U-Mary went three for three from deep. Collins had four of her career-high 11 assists on the run. The Marauders built their biggest lead of lead of the night (20) on a fast break lay-up by
Brittney Dietz that was assisted by Collins.
Despite their sizable lead, U-Mary allowed NSU to hang around as they slowly chipped away at the lead. A pair of made lay-ups by the Wolves with 3:31 remaining in the game closed the Marauder lead to 66-60. U-Mary responded with back-to-back three pointers from Collins and
Shaunna Knife to extend the lead to 12. The Marauders went on to win by a final of 78-66.
The Marauders shot lights-out from beyond the arc hitting 13 of their 23 attempts. This is the third time U-Mary has made 10 or more three-point field goals in a game
this season.
For the game the Marauders outshot the Wolves 48 to 36 percent.
Despite Northern State's 15 offensive rebounds, they were only able to score 13 second chance points.
Collins (24), Lindsay Sand (12), Dietz (11) and
Kaitlyn Haag (10) all finished in double figures for U-Mary.
Knife and Haag led the Marauders in rebounding with six each. Haag also added three blocks.
Improving to 5-2 (1-1 NSIC), the Marauders extended their winning streak over the Wolves to three games. The win marks the first conference win of the season for U-Mary and the first of Head Coach
Rick Neumann's career.
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