Shooting woes cost NMU Women's B-Ball

Courtesy of NMU Athletics
CANTON, Ohio – The Northern Michigan University women’s basketball team was  defeated by Malone University, 64-56 on Saturday (Dec. 1) in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup. With the loss, head coach Troy Mattson’s squad drops to 4-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play for the season.

NMU opened up the game by scoring the first five points before the Pioneers would get on the board, and led for the first 10 minutes of play. The next 10 minutes was a scoring battle between each team, as there were five different lead changes and the game was tied up twice. Malone took the 28-27 advantage at the half.

In the second half, the score remained 28-27 until 15:21 to go in the half, when the Pioneer’s Tara Schaffter made a jump shot to put Malone up 30-27. The ‘Cats weren’t able to pull ahead at all during the second half, and only came within two points.

Sophomore guard Alyssa Colla led the way for the ‘Cats with 15 points, while sophomore forward Abbey DeBruin added 12 more. Leading in rebounds was freshman guard Anna Liewen with eight, five on offense and three on defense. As a team, the ‘Cats finished the afternoon shooting 18-of-57 and 15-of-19 from the charity stripe.

Schaffter led scoring with 11 points off the bench, while Sydnee Penn and Deborah Simmers each had 10. Selana Reale led all rebounders with 13 total, with ten on defense. The Pioneers shot 20-of-47 and 18-of-25 from the free throw line.

The ‘Cats will return home on the weekend with a pair of GLIAC games against Hillsdale College on Thursday (Dec. 6) at 7:30 p.m. and University of Findlay on Saturday (Dec. 8) at 3 p.m.