OMAHA, Neb. – Outscoring their opponent in every quarter, the Dakota Wesleyan University women's basketball team cruised to a 79-47 victory over College of Saint Mary Sunday in Omaha, Neb.
The Great Plains Athletic Conference matchup began with a quick 11-0 run by the Tigers (9-5, 7-5 GPAC) after four minutes of action. After a timeout, the Flames (1-11, 0-9 GPAC) went on a 7-0 run to cut the DWU lead to four points.
Matti Reiner (Tripp, S.D.) put an end to the run with a basket. After a scoreless two minutes, Jada Campbell (Alexandria, S.D.) made a basket followed by a Haidyn Pitsch (Prior Lake, Minn.) shot.
It was a slow start to the second period, but Natalie Gottlob (Salem, S.D.) made the first basket to extend the Tiger lead to seven points. After a steal, Rynn Osthus (De Smet, S.D.) went coast-to-coast for a layup to build the lead to double digits.
The Tigers continued to extend their lead as Kaylee Kirk (Balaton, Minn.) found Haylee Mork (Aberdeen, S.D.) for a 3-pointer. With less than a minute to play in the half, Kirk found Pitsch for a 3-point basket as DWU took a 35-21 advantage into the locker rooms at halftime.
Reiner helped DWU get off to a quick start to the second half as she found nothing but net on the Tigers' first possession. After snagging an offensive rebound, Osthus made a layup to push the lead to 20 points less than two minutes into the third frame.
With the clock winding down in the third quarter, Kirk found Pitsch again, this time in the corner as she buried her shot from beyond the arc to hand the Tigers a 60-37 lead with 10 minutes to play.
The final stanza was all DWU, outscoring the Flames 19-10 en route to the 32-point win.
Reiner and Campbell scored a game-high 17 points each, while Osthus posted a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Tigers finished with 56 total rebounds and shot 47.1% from 3-point range.
DWU stays on the road to battle Northwestern College at 6 p.m. on Wednesday in Orange City, Iowa.