BISMARCK, N.D. - Spurred on by the scoring trio of Brittney Dietz, Hannah Larson, and Dani Williams, the University of Mary Women's Basketball team led wire-to-wire against Upper Iowa University this afternoon to secure the weekend sweep.
 
The Marauders (10-10, 4-8 NSIC) built up a 10-point cushion midway through the first quarter and were carried by the defense through the remainder of the game as the Peacocks (4-14, 3-9 NSIC) never got within eight points en route to a 63-50 win for U-Mary.
 
Williams sunk the first perimeter shot of the game for U-Mary at the 8:36 mark of the first frame and Dietz followed up with three from beyond the arc, coupled with a driving layup from Larson, to put the Marauders up 14-4 over the Peacocks with 4:51 left in the period.
 
Upper Iowa snapped the streak of eight straight points from U-Mary with a mid-range jumper from Aleesha Cleaver, but Isabel Schmelzer put the Marauders back on track with a layup under the basket at the 3:44 mark to kick start an 8-2 run that placed the score at 22-8 in favor of the home team in the final seconds. The Peacocks fired off one final shot before the buzzer and the three-pointer from Sam Ofstad found the bottom of the basket to cut the lead down to 22-11 heading into the second.
 
Larson and Dietz teamed up at the start of the second to fire up the offense as Larson recorded five points while Dietz added five of her own to keep U-Mary comfortably ahead at 32-18 by the 7:36 mark, and the scoring outburst came just in time as both teams suddenly went cold for the next four minutes of game time.
 
A combined 10 shots were missed before Upper Iowa ended their drought with a driving layup from Whitney Kieffer at the 3:54 mark, and she followed up with a mid-range jumper only 43 seconds later before Rachel Weir ended U-Mary's famine with a driving layup at the 2:42 mark of the frame.
 
Larson added four more points to her total before the Peacocks made the final basket of the half, but the Marauders had a firm grasp of the lead at 38-24 at the break.
 
The third quarter turned into a game of back-and-forth as U-Mary matched every shot the Peacocks made. The closest Upper Iowa got on the scoreboard was 45-36 off two free throws from Sarah Benson at the 3:39 mark of the period, but Williams put the lead back at double figures with another three-pointer at the 3:23 mark to keep the Peacocks at bay. The Marauders would cruise to a 53-40 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
 
Upper Iowa appeared to gain some momentum at the start of the period as they fired off a 7-2 run to narrow the gap down to 55-47, but U-Mary's defense sprang into action as they limited the Peacocks to one field goal in the final 5:05 of game time and held on for the win at 63-50. The win for U-Mary matches their total from the 2014-15 season.
 
Combining for 54 of the Marauders points on the evening, Brittney Dietz finished with 23 on 7-for-14 shooting, Hannah Larson ended with 18 on 6-for-9, and Dani Williams recorded 13 and a perfect mark of 4-for-4 from the charity stripe.
 
Dietz added three rebounds, five assists, three blocks and three steals in 37 minutes on the floor; Larson grabbed seven rebounds, dished out four assists, swatted three shots and got one steal in 31 minutes of play; and Williams added two rebounds and one assist in 33 minutes of game time.
 
Rachel Weir was active on the boards as she grabbed eight rebounds in addition to four points in 31 minutes as a starter, while Isabel Schmelzer came off the bench for 14 minutes and added five points and six rebounds.
 
Dietz became the 7th player in U-Mary's history to surpass 1,600 career points on the game and sits only 11 points behind Sarah Leer, who played for U-Mary during the NAIA days back in 2000-04. Dietz currently has 1,607 during her time in a Marauder uniform.
 
The Marauders will spend the next two weeks on the road and will travel to St. Cloud, Minn., next week to take on St. Cloud State University, starting at 6:00 PM on Friday, January 22.

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