March 26, 2008

Hot Shooting Norse Roll Past Wingate

Slack Leads Northern Kentucky

Kearney, Neb. –  The second quarter final game of the 2008 NCAA Division II Women’s Elite Eight matched up the Wingate University Bulldogs of Wingate, N.C., against Northern Kentucky University Norse from Highland Heights Ky.

The hot shooting of Northern Kentucky (51.7 percent) was too much for Wingate to handle as three players reached double figures for the Norse as they defeated the Bulldogs, 78-65.

 Wingate finishes the season with a record of 26-8 and sees their 11-game win streak halted. WU also falls to 0-3 all-time in Elite 8 games, having also in the 1995 and 1996 national quarterfinals. 

Northern Kentucky picks up their fourth straight win and is now 26-8 on the year. The Norse advances to the semi-finals on Thursday to face the Alaska Anchorage Seawolves at 7:00 p.m. The game will be aired live by ESPNU.

This was a national quarterfinal game of the NCAA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championships.  The Elite 8 tournament is being held at the Health and Sports Center at the University of Nebraska – Kearney for the second straight year.

Northern Kentucky, champs of the Great Lakes Region, broke open the game with back-to-back threes by Rachel Lantry. Lantry’s second triple came with 2:13 remaining in the first half and pushed the Norse advantage to eight points.

“I thought we came out a little flat, but I think Wingate might have also.  We started to get some momentum and took the lead, but they came back and played well, but Rachel Lantry really stepped up to hit a couple of big threes,” said NKU head coach Nancy Winstel.

 Up until that point it had been a relatively close contest, as the teams traded the lead five times and were tied twice, including being knotted up at 25 with 5:12 left in the half.

Trailing 33-27 at halftime Wingate, the winners of the South Atlantic Region, was unable to find an answer for the hot shooting touch of NKU in the second frame.

The Norse continued to shoot at a high clip, hitting 15-of-29 field goals. In addition Northern Kentucky made the most of their opportunities at the charity stripe, going 11-of-11 for the game.

The Norse extended their lead to as many as 21 in the second half. Leading the way for Northern Kentucky was junior guard Jessie Slack who led all scorers with 20 point, 12 of them coming from beyond the arc as she drained 4-of-6 triples. She also chipped in with five assists, four rebounds, four steals and two blocks.

“In the second half, we said we have to come out and take it from them.  On defense we had to come out and do everything we could to get a stop and on offense we had to do everything we could to get a shot,” said Winstel.

 Also in double digits for NKU were Angela Healy and Cassie Brannen with 16 and 15 points respectively. Healy was just two rebounds shy of a double double with eight boards.

The Bulldogs shot just 37.7 percent from the field (26-of-69) in the game and were just 7-of-15 from the line (46.7 percent).

“Today we were defeated by a little better basketball team,” said WU first-year head coach Barbara Nelson. “I think their (defensive) length was a concern, that why we didn’t want a half court game.  We wanted to keep it full court, but we couldn’t consistently do that.

Wingate was paced by Kate Edwards with 19 points, hitting on 70 percent of her shots from the field. All-American guard Ann Atkinson chipped in with 16 points and four steals while Kasey Gillis finished with a dozen.