BISMARCK, ND – Another big night by Hannah Larson and a career game for Lauren Rotunda keyed the University of Mary women's basketball team's 69-56 upset of 25^th ranked Northern State University. This is the second time in four chances this season the Marauders have beaten a nationally-ranked squad.
 
Larson scored 23 points and hauled down 11 rebounds to pace all players in both categories. The senior forward was 5-of-8 on trey attempts and connected on 8-of-12 field goals. She also blocked two shots.
 
Rotunda was deadly behind the arc for the Marauders. The freshman guard knocked down 4-of-5 trey attempts and made 6-of-10 shots overall on the way to a career-high 19 points. Also a key player on defense, she tied Rachel Weir for game-high honors in steals with four.
 
Traditionally a fast-starting squad this season, the Marauders trailed by as many as nine points in the first quarter despite Larson draining two treys and scoring eight points.
 
Mary (9-8 overall, 4-5 NSIC) began to find itself in the second quarter. Starting with two Larson free throws at the end of the first, the Marauders went on a 14-0 run to take a 25-20 lead. Larson scored the first nine points to pull Mary even at 20-20. Rotunda followed with a trey and a Cassie Askvig basket in the paint pushed the Marauders to a 5-point lead.
 
After the Wolves (10-3, 6-3) tied the game at 26-26, Christal Hearn went to work for the Marauders, banking in a 3-pointer before hitting a layup on the way to a 31-28 halftime lead for Mary.
 
The Marauders maintained their lead the rest of the night, outscoring the Wolves 15-9 in the third quarter, eventually building a one-point advantage into a nine-point lead as Larson finished off the stanza with a layup and a trey.
 
Two Dani Williams free throws to start the fourth quarter gave the Marauders its first double-figure lead of the night at 48-37. The Wolves then struck back as Jill Conrad scored the next eight points for Northern State and whittled the difference to seven.
 
Eventually the Marauders regained its double digit lead on a Rotunda trey with 3:25 left for a 61-49 Mary lead. Another Rotunda basket and the Marauders lead grew to 14 points before eventually hitting 16 with less than a minute to play.
 
Defensively the Marauders contained one of the top shooting teams in the Northern Sun. The Wolves connected on just 38.1 percent of their field goal attempts, including a woeful 3-of-20 mark on treys. Mary shot 51.2 percent from the floor with a 10-of-19 effort behind the arc against the top field goal defense in the league. NSU entered the night allowing just 53 points a game with opponents making just 33 percent of their shots.
 
The final was a reversal of the meeting at Northern State on Dec. 3, which was a 59-38 Wolves win.
 
Williams added 10 points for the Marauders, making all six of her free throws. Askvig had a team-high five assists.
 
Conrad led NSU with 23 points and eight rebounds.
 
Mary plays its second straight nationally-ranked opponent when #24 MSU Moorhead visits the McDowell Activity Center on Saturday, Jan. 7, at 4 pm.
 
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