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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 25, 2000
Streak
Reaches 74; Lopers Nip Golden Griffons
Kearney, NE – Sophomore forward Allison Kruger hit a 15-foot jump shot as time expired to give the 15th-ranked University of Nebraska at Kearney women's basketball team a 75-74 win over the 25th-ranked Missouri Western State Golden Griffons Saturday night in the title game of the UNK Thanksgiving Tournament. The Lopers move to 4-0 while MWSC drops to 3-1.
The shot preserved UNK's home court winning streak, now at 74 games and dating back to January of 1995. It is the second longest such streak in NCAA Division II history. This is the closest game in "The Streak" since the Lopers beat Augustana, 73-72, in 1995.
This is the second straight year the Lopers have defeated MWSC on a last second shot; Jodi Dubs hit a runner in the last year in Missouri to give the Lopers a 78-77 victory.
"It (the shot) felt incredible. I've never hit a game winning shot until tonight," Kruger said. "We never doubted we could win. Even with eight seconds left, and after they had gotten two offensive rebounds, we thought we could still win."
The winning play started with eight seconds left and after Missouri Western missed its third straight one and one free throw attempt. Krista Small missed the first two but teammate Danielle Kneib rebounded each one. After the miss by Kneib, Kruger got the rebound and passed the ball to junior guard Beth Swift. She took the ball down the center off the court, drew about four Western players and found Kruger, who was wide open on the right wing.
"Beth showed tremendous poise down the stretch. We wanted her to take the last shot. If not, find the open player and she did that," head coach Amy Stephens said.
UNK led for the game's first 34 minutes but Western, thanks to seven of 13 shooting from the three point line in the second half, went ahead 66-63 with 6:18 to play. The Lopers, on a layup by Becky Schroeder, went back ahead, 72-68, with 2:14 to play. However, UNK committed back-to-back turnovers and Western made two treys to move head, 74-72. A Schroeder free throw was the last scoring before the dramatic shot.
Behind tournament MVP Swift (21 points, five threes), UNK jumped out to a 19-6 lead seven minutes into the game. Western managed to hang in the contest, thanks to 50 percent shooting in the first half, and trailed by 10 at halftime.
Thanks for four three pointers, Western got the lead down to five, 54-49, with 13:10 to play and it was a battle all the rest of the way.
In the early contest, Northern State (1-4) defeated Texas Woman's University (0-4), 82-73.
All-Tournament
Team
Beth Swift, UNK (MVP)
Allison Kruger, UNK
Becky Schroeder, UNK
Krista Small, MWSC
Lakesha Jones, MWSC
Holly Schaunaman, Northern State
Contact:
Peter Yazvac yazvacpa@unk.edu
Media Relations Director (308)
865-8334
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© 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003
University of Nebraska at Kearney
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