Women’s Basketball Comes Up Short Against Lake Superior State Saturday
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — The Purdue University Northwest women’s basketball team let a halftime lead slip away as the Pride dropped a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference contest, 62-57, at Bud Cooper Gymnasium, Saturday.
Freshman Brittany Barnard (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) scored a career-high 17 points and grabbed five rebounds, sophomore Danielle Nennig (Wrightstown, Wis./Wrightstown) turned in another stellar performance for the Pride scoring 17 points and pulling down six rebounds and sophomore Tayler Vauters (Rockville, Ind./Riverton Parke) added 14 points and a team high eight rebounds, which tied a season-high.
PNW led 35-29 at the halftime break but the Lakers outscored the Pride 34-24 in the second half to pick up the 62-57 victory.
Lake Superior State started the game leading 6-2 but after Nennig converted on an and-1 followed by a Vauters layup, PNW took an 8-6 lead in the early stages. Both teams traded leads for a little while the rest of the quarter and early stages of the second period.
PNW would expand on a lead in the second quarter going ahead 28-21 with 5:01 left to tie their biggest lead of the day after Vauters found open space for a jumper. After the Lakers looked to make a run, Nennig drove to the basket for a layup to give the Pride a 34-27 advantage in the late stages of the second.
Lake Superior State made their run to start the second half outscoring PNW 10-3 to have a 41-38 lead with 5:59 remaining in the third quarter. The lead would change hands again as Barnard nailed a jump shot to give PNW a 44-43 advantage.
After trailing going to the fourth quarter, Nennig nailed a three-pointer to start the period which gave PNW a 51-49 lead. Barnard put PNW ahead 55-52 with her layup with 8:09 remaining in the game.
However, the Lakers had the answer on both sides of the ball with a 7-0 spurt in the next two minutes to put them back in the lead 59-55 at the 5:54 mark in the game. Lake Superior State played lock down defense the rest of the way holding PNW without a field goal.
PNW returns to action Saturday, January 26 as the Pride travel to Parkside in Kenosha, Wis. for a GLIAC matchup starting at 1 p.m. CT.