Green Knights Hold Off Monmouth

From Sports Information Director, January 5, 2013 | Women's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College held off a late Monmouth College charge to claim a 65-55 win in a Midwest Conference game at Connie Tilley Court at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights (9-3, 6-1 MWC) held a 16-point lead at halftime but saw almost all of that evaporate down to a 1-point edge in the second half. But St. Norbert never relinquished the lead to pull out the win over the Scots (11-2, 6-2), who have been nationally ranked for much of the season.

Everything worked on both ends of the floor in the first half for St. Norbert, which led by 16 points on three different occasions in the first half. St. Norbert had a 24-15 lead before going on a 7-0 run, finished by a Megan Doody 3-pointer, and Lana Tomashek's 3-pointer just before halftime gave the Green Knights a 36-20 lead at the break.

The Green Knights led 41-26 with 14:41 to go after a pair of Krista Hawkinson free throws, but Monmouth made its move with an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to 41-37 with 11:19 left. St. Norbert built its lead back to eight on a conventional three-point play by Tasha Giese with 9:31 left for a 48-40 edge.

Monmouth cut its deficit down to 51-50, but Morgan Heim's jumper with 4:33 left started a 6-0 run. Doody and Hawkinson both made a pair of free throws for a 57-50 lead with 3:52 left. The Scots would get to within 58-54 with 2:03 to go, but St. Norbert would close the game on a 7-1 run.

St. Norbert shot 33.9 percent (19-for-56) from the floor, including a frigid 23.1 percent (6-for-26) in the second half. But the Green Knights were able to shoot (87 percent) from the free-throw line, making 20 of 23 charity tosses. Doody set a career high in scoring for the second straight game, finishing with 21 points. Hawkinson added 18 points, while Giese collected 11 points and nine rebounds.

Monmouth shot 35.7 percent (20-for-56) from the floor. Marla Willard had 13 points and 14 rebounds, while Zipporah Williams had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Kaley Corban added 10 points for the Scots.