St. Norbert Tops Cornell; Moves Within One Game of First Place

From Staff Writer, January 28, 2017 | Women's Basketball
by Zach Herson, ,

GREEN BAY - St. Norbert College took on Cornell College in a Midwest Conference showdown at the Kress Events Center. The two teams led the MWC standings heading into the game, with Cornell leading the Green Knights by two games. The Green Knights dominated the Rams to the tune of 68-45 to inch closer to the top.

St. Norbert (13-4, 10-2 MWC) found itself in a tight battle with the conference leader early, with neither team taking a lead bigger than four points in the first half until the final minute. St. Norbert pulled away to start the second half and didn't look back in a decisive victory.

The Green Knights were buoyed by pair of 3-pointers early to keep them in the game and halfway through the first quarter found themselves up 10-8. The teams traded points for most of the remainder of the first quarter, but a pair of 3-pointers by Cornell allowed it to take a 20-18 lead heading into the second period.

St. Norbert battled back-and-forth with Cornell in the beginning of the second quarter, eventually taking a 26-24 lead off of a Regan Carmichael 3-pointer. The Green Knights took a 35-29 lead at the end of the second half. St. Norbert outscored Cornell 17-9 in the second quarter

Carmichael started off the second half scoring with another three-point basket, giving St. Norbert a nine-point lead, its biggest of the game up to that point. Later in the quarter, a Mallory Nickerson layup gave the Green Knights a 46-35 advantage, the first double-digit lead for the game. Cornell closed the gap slightly heading into the fourth period.

The Green Knights started off the fourth quarter like the third, with Macie Zurfluh sinking a three-point shot to take a 51-40 lead. Jill Kleiman followed it up with yet another 3-pointer to give St. Norbert its biggest lead of the night. St. Norbert maintained and added onto ots large lead for the remainder of the game.

The Green Knights were led in scoring by Carmichael with 16 points, while Nickerson added on 14 and Brianna Byrne 13 points. St. Norbert shot 54 percent (27-for-50) from the floor, including 72.7 percent (8-for-11) in the fourth quarter.

Cornell was led by Diamond Boyd in scoring with eight points. Sierra Bisso scored seven points and Haley Grana and Rose Shimaoka scored six points apiece. Cornell shot only 30 percent (15-for-50) for the game.