St. Norbert Runs Past Ripon in MWC Semifinal

From Sports Information Director, February 26, 2016 | Women's Basketball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College used a big middle two quarters to post a resounding 78-46 win over Ripon College in a Midwest Conference Tournament semifinal game on Connie Tilley Court at Schuldes Sports Center.

The Green Knights (20-4) will face Cornell College (19-5) at 6 p.m. Saturday in the championship game of the MWC Tournament. The winner will receive an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament.

St. Norbert, which led 19-12 after the first quarter, outscored the Red Hawks (14-10) by a 49-20 margin in the second and third quarters combined to pull away.

The Green Knights and Red Hawks were tied 7-7 just over two minutes into the game before layups by Brianna Byrne and Jill Kleiman put the host up to stay. Ripon trailed 14-12 with 3:38 left in the quarter but a Stephanie Weigman jumper and a Kleiman 3-pointer allowed St. Norbert to close out the period on a 5-0 spurt.

St. Norbert continued the run into the second quarter, scoring the first eight points of the stanza for an overall run of 13-0. Weigman's layup with 8:16 left in the quarter put the Green Knights ahead 27-12. St. Norbert led 43-22 at halftime.

The Green Knights scored the first nine points of the third quarter to effectively dash any Ripon comeback hopes.

St. Norbert shot 48.1 percent (25-for-52) from the floor. Kleiman led all scorers with 13 points. Regan Carmichael added 11 points, while Kyra VandenHeuvel and Sarah Ratajczyk had 10 points apiece.

Ripon shot 37.5 percent (18-for-48) from the floor. Maddie Koster was the lone Red Hawk to score in double figures at 10 points.