Northern State women's basketball follows streak-breaker with dud

At least it wasn’t the ninth in a row.

Northern State women’s basketball served up a home dud against the powerful Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs Friday night at Wachs Arena, losing 74-56 to follow up the Wolves’ emotional, streak-breaking win a Saturday prior.

The starters and most of the regular rotation players checked out of the game with over eight minutes left in the contest (though a few starters briefly returned late after an uncharacteristically extended absence), as a disastrous third quarter doomed what was once a promising look to the first contest of the Wolves’ final home weekend. The Bulldogs outscored their hosts 26-8 in that quarter after entering the frame with just a five-point lead.

“In the third quarter, I thought we played really uninspired basketball,” Wolves head coach Paula Krueger said after the game. “A large part of that comes back on me. There were loose balls under the basket, their big post goes and gets it, our kids are watching. That’s unacceptable stuff.”

Northern State led after the first frame 14-9, and played Duluth close through most of the second before a series of poor possessions coincided with a decent lead-grabbing run for the Bulldogs. The half ended with an emblematic trip down the floor, as the Wolves failed to get a good shot off as the clock wound toward zeroes, something they’d started to struggle with seemingly out of nowhere late in the second quarter.

“In real life, there isn’t always someone to pull you out. You have to pull yourself out, and we didn’t do that,” Krueger said. “First time all year we’ve really played uninspired, not that gritty kind of basketball that we’re known for.”

Duluth improved to 17-5 overall and 16-3 in conference play, tied with MSU Moorhead for the division and conference lead. The Bulldogs are a very strong team and were certainly favored to win by most metrics Friday. But it didn’t have to go quite like that.

“You’re not going to win any games — not even make them competitive — if you can’t find your passion and your drive,” Krueger said. “(Duluth is) a good basketball team. They’re not 30 points better than we are, but they’re good.”

Northern was led in scoring by a fine game from Tori Mekash, who responded to a green light Krueger said has been there all season and totaled 13.

“That’s something she needs to do for us to be in games. She needs to shoot the ball,” Krueger said. “(Friday night) she shot the ball. But that third quarter, (Duluth was) really good, we were really bad. It was too much to come back from.”

The Wolves, swept by Duluth on the season for the first time in 15 seasons, fall to 6-13 on the conference season and are 9-16 overall. They’ll try to win the final home game of the season today against St. Cloud State at 4 p.m.

Minnesota Duluth 74

Northern State 56

NSIC at Wachs Arena

UMD 9 23 26 16 — 74

NSU 14 13 8 21 — 56

UMD: Katie Stark 2-6 2-2 7, Emma Boehm 4-4 0-0 8, Sarah Grow 4-10 0-0 8, Ann Simonet 2-7 0-0 5, Sammy Kozlowski 9-12 1-1 21, Taylor Schneider 0-6 0-0 0, Payton kahl 6-6 1-1 14, Josie Buckley 1-2 2-2 4, Brooke Olson 3-8 0-0 7, Emma Schmidt 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 31-62 6-6 74.

NSU: Lexi Wadsworth 0-3 5-6 5, Alayna Johnson 1-3 0-0 2, Tori Mekash 5-11 0-0 13, Brianna Kusler 2-5 0-0 4, Jessi Marti 4-8 0-0 9, Brooke Luitjens 0-1 0-0 0, Joie Spier 3-6 0-0 6, Rachel Guthmiller 1-1 0-0 2, Anika Fredrick 3-4 3-4 9, Zoe Hardwick 3-4 0-0 6. Totals 22-46 8-10 56.

3-pt FG — UMD 6-18, Stark 1-4, Simonet 1-4, Kozlowski 2-3, Schneider 0-2, Kahl 1-1, Buckley 0-1, Olson 1-3; NSU 4-9, Mekash 3-6, Marti 1-2, Spier 0-1. Fouls — UMD 10; NSU 8. Fouled out — none. Rebounds — UMD 28, Stark 5, Boehm 1, Grow 2, Simonet 4, Kozlowski 6, Kahl 2, Buckley 3, Olson 1; NSU 27, Wadsworth 2, Johnson 1, Mekash 2, Kusler 8, Marti 3, Luitjens 1, Spier 5, Fredrick 1, Hardwick 2. Assists — UMD 17, Stark 1, Boehm 3, Grow 1, Simonet 5, Kozlowski 2, Kahl 2, Olson 3; NSU 14, Wadsworth 2, Johnson 2, Mekash 2, Kusler 1, Marti 4, Kohler 1, Fredrick 2. Turnovers — UMD 7; NSU 15. Blocks — UMD 5, Stark 1, Grow 4; NSU 3, Wadsworth 1, Fredrick 1, Hardwick 1. Steals — UMD 4, Boehm 1, Kahl 3; NSU 4, Wadsworth 1, Mekash 1, Kusler 2.