Women’s Basketball Comes Up Short Against Northern Michigan Saturday
WESTVILLE, Ind. — The Purdue University Northwest women’s basketball team let an early lead slip away against the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference North Leader Northern Michigan, 44-40, Saturday.
The Wildcats (15-6, 10-3 GLIAC) defeated the Pride (2-17, 0-13 GLIAC) inside H.D. Kesling Gymnasium at the James B. Dworkin Student Activities Complex.
Junior Bayley Goodman (Fowler, Ind./Benton Central) led the Pride with nine points off the bench and grabbing five rebounds. Sophomore Tayler Vauters (Rockville, Ind./Riverton Parke) scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds.
PNW played stellar defense holding NMU without a field goal in the first five minutes which allowed the Pride to jump out to a 10-2 lead in the first quarter. The Pride then went ahead 18-6 after a layup by Danielle Nennig (Wrightstown, Wis./Wrightstown).
The Wildcats bounced back in the second quarter, starting the period on a 15-0 run to go ahead 21-18. Vauters put PNW back ahead 23-22 with 2:43 left in the second period. Both teams went into the halftime break tied at 25.
Goodman made a three-pointer to cut it to 32-30 in favor of Northern Michigan with 5:33 left in the third quarter. The Wildcats outscored the Pride 5-0 the rest of the quarter to go ahead 37-30 going into the final period.
After NMU scored the opening basket in the fourth quarter, PNW responded and scored the next seven points to cut it to 39-37 after a trifecta by freshman Kelli Damman (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) with 4:14 left in the game. Later in the game, Damman hit another three-pointer to make it 42-40 NMU with eight seconds left but the Wildcats hit a pair of free throws to ice the game to pick up the victory 44-40.
PNW returns to action Thursday, February 7 as the Pride travel to Allendale, Mich. to take on the No. 15 team in the country Grand Valley State starting at 5 p.m. CT.