Schmidt’s Double-Double Sends Fire Women’s Basketball to Second Round

SIOUX CITY, Iowa—Marlena Schmidt’s fourth double-double of the season helped No. 1 seed Southeastern overcome a slow start and advance with an 89-57 win over Alice Lloyd in the first round of the NAIA Division II National Championship.
In the second half, Schmidt was dominant, scoring 14 of her team-high 20 points, and hauling in nine of her game-high 14 rebounds.
“We had a rough patch, but we had a lot of people make really big plays,” said Schmidt. “It gave me energy to do what I do best. Our spacing and ball movement were better in the second half; we have very balanced scoring, but it’s not going to get anywhere without ball movement.”
The rough patch saw the Fire down 13-6 just over four minutes into the game, but Elsa Paulsson-Glantz scored seven of her 13 points in the final five minutes of the first quarter to help give the Fire a 19-18 lead with 1:05 left in the quarter.
Katie Moore banked in a deep 3-pointer from the left wing at the horn to give the Eagles a 21-19 lead after 10 minutes.
The Fire used a 9-0 run in the second quarter to break a 29-29 tie and take control of the game. Four of those points came from Emma Karamovic, who had 14 points off the bench.
Paulsson-Glantz blocked a 3-point attempt at the halftime buzzer to send SEU to the locker room with a 41-31 lead.
“We came in knowing if we could slow them down and defend, that would kick start our offense,” said coach Tim Hays. “Early in the game, we didn’t do that well, second quarter we mixed up defenses we started to, and in the third and fourth quarter, we looked like us again.”
Southeastern ran away in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Eagles 31-9, and held ALC to just three field goals in the final 10 minutes.
Mackenzie Cann was also in double-figures with 17 points, and added five rebounds and three steals. Reagan Linster chipped in 11 points, connecting on 4-of-6 shots.
The Fire will face either Dordt or IU Northwest on Friday at 11:15 a.m. Eastern.
The 89 points scored by the Fire were the most the program has ever scored in a single game at the tournament. Schmidt set a program record for rebounds in an NAIA tournament game.