UNK Home Friday & Saturday
Kearney, Neb. – Redshirt sophomore guard Karley Motschenbacher scored a game-high 21 points and No. 6 West Texas A&M had a plus 14 rebounding margin to rally past No. 38 Nebraska Kearney, 59-53, Sunday afternoon in Kansas City. The game was part of the D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in Municipal Auditorium. Both teams won on Saturday, the Lopers downing Southern (Okla.) Nazarene, 75-53, and the Lady Buffs beating No. 3 Fort Hays State, 71-58. WT tallied the game's first bucket but UNK scored the next 13 points and built up leads of 21-7, 31-20 and 40-33. A 2022 Elite Eight squad who won 26 games last season, the Lady Bluffs hung around but trailed 52-49 with 4:49 left to play after a left wing three from South Dakota senior Klaire Kirsch. After going 12 of 28 from behind the arc on Saturday, the Lopers were 4 of 22 from three-point land today. The Lopers had a chance to push the lead to six but a right wing three misfired and WT followed with an 11-1 closing run. UNK missed its last seven field goals with the Lady Buffs grabbing its first lead since 2-0 when a free throw line jumper by senior Lauren Taylor hit the back iron, popped up and went down through the net. That made it 54-52 at the 2:58 mark. Six-foot post Braylyn Dollar scored the next three points thanks to making one of two free throws and hitting jumper with the shot clock winding down. Just her fourth make of the day, that gave WT a 57-52 lead with 18 seconds left. The bigger Lady Buffs had a 46-32 advantage on the glass that included 13 o-boards which led to nine second chance points. Motschenbacher had a double double as she also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds (nine defensive) while reaching her point total thanks to 9 of 14 shooting (1 for 1 threes). The Minnesota State-Moorhead transfer scored 17 in the second half. Seven others got into the scoring column including 10 for senior guard Zamorye Roberts. Finally, WT out shot UNK by six percentage points, 41-35. Kirsch (12) and Kansas senior forward Elisa Backes (10) combined for 22 points as each made four field goals and grabbed seven rebounds as well. All seven for Backes came at the defensive end with Kirsch having two of UNK's eight o-boards. Next, Iowa redshirt junior forward Shiloh McCool got close to a double double (eight points, eight rebounds) with Elkhorn post Brooke Carlson and Mullen guard Samantha Moore at six points apiece. The pair combined to go 6 of 11 from the field. UNK hosts Minnesota-Crookston (Saturday) and Southwest Minnesota State (Saturday) next weekend. Northwest Missouri State will be in attendance as well and plays the early contest each day.
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