December 9, 2003

Women’s Basketball Whips Dragons

Lopers Force 37 Turnovers in 43-Point Win

            Kearney, NE – The Nebraska-Kearney women’s basketball team forced 37 turnovers in a 92-49 rout of Minnesota State-Moorhead Tuesday night at the Health & Sports Center. UNK improves to 4-2 while MSUM falls to 5-3.

            The Lopers were looking to reclaim its home court dominance after Northern State handed UNK only its fourth home loss over the last eight years on November 29^th. The Dragons seemed to be a formidable opponent as they lost to No. 4 South Dakota earlier this year by just a 56-55 score.

            However, the Lopers went on a 19-2 run midway through the first half to turn a 20-17 lead into a 39-19 advantage and never looked back.

            Moorhead had 16 first half turnovers and then made just eight of 27 shots (29.6) after halftime, in addition to 21 turnovers. UNK had only 16 miscues for the game and shot a solid 47.4 percent from the field.

            Four Lopers were in double figures, led by sophomore center Kalee Modlin, who scored 13 of her team high 19 points in the first half. She also pulled down eight rebounds.

            Senior Allison Kruger made seven of eight shots to score 16 points and freshman point guard Liz Fischer hit six of nine field goals to tally 17 points. Sophomore forward Anne Manning, the RMAC leader in field goal percentage at 67 percent, continues her fine play as she had 16 points and six rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench. 

            Also, senior forward Heather Steffen had an all around effort, scoring eight points, grabbing seven rebounds, having four assists and four steals. The four thefts put her at 190 for her career, fourth most in Loper lore.

             Liz Klukas and Janna Davis paced the Dragons with 10 points apiece.

            UNK heads to Colorado Friday to play Mesa State in the RMAC opener for both.