MANKATO, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran women's basketball team Friday night dropped a contest to Northwestern by a score of 69-51. With the loss the Vikings fall to 7-17 overall and 5-8 in the UMAC while the Eagles move to 16-8 overall and 12-1 in conference play.
The first quarter got out to a slow start, with neither team really mustering a whole lot offensively. A Lexiss Trygg bucket inside would trim the Eagles lead to 7-6 midway through the frame before UNW would outscore Bethany 8-5 over the next four plus minutes to take a 15-11 lead after one.
Annika Younge would then open the second quarter with back-to-back baskets to tie things at 15 before Northwestern started to hit their stride. The visitors would outscore the Vikings 18-5 over the final 7:17 and would take a 33-20 lead into the half.
Ashley Schindele would open the third quarter with a three pointer and after an Eagle basket, Sara Kottke would do the same to pull Bethany back within single digits at 35-26. Northwestern would slowly build their lead back to 15 points midway through the frame before Schindele hit another three followed by a Kaylee Hunter offensive rebound and layup to trim the lead back to 10. With the quarter winding down, Alba Fernandez would score on consecutive possessions to trim the lead to eight before a UNW free throw pushed it back to nine at the end of three.
After a pair of Ashanti Boykin free throws in the fourth to cut the deficit to seven, UNW all but ended the game over the next over the next four minutes as they went on a 12-1 run to take a 60-42 lead with just over five minutes remaining. Another Schindele three would get the deficit down to 14 with four minutes left but the Eagles would push to the victory.
Schindele led the Vikings with 12 points in this one while Kottke added nine points and nine rebounds. Younge added a solid game off the bench for Bethany, posting nine points, five rebounds, and two blocks.
A large factor in the win for the Eagles was their dominance on the offensive boards, as they tallied 20 offensive rebounds in the contest and scored 22 second chance points.
Bethany will conclude their season tomorrow when they host Senior Day at 4:45 p.m. against North Central .
