Balanced scoring and an inspired defensive effort in the second half led 14th-ranked Northwestern to a 68-53 win over No.11 Hastings in a conference showdown played today at the Bultman Center. The Red Raiders push their season-high win streak to six games and improve to 9-2 in GPAC play, 14-5 overall. 
  Anna Kiel led Northwestern with 15 points and both Haley Birks (14) and Kassidy De Jong (13) also scored in double figures. Breana Schuiteman scored all nine of her points from beyond the arc and Darbi Gustafson netted seven. De Jong pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.

With the game tied at 37 after a jumper by Broncos guard Shandra Farmer with 7:13 left in the third quarter, Northwestern went on a 16-2 run for a 53-39 advantage heading into the final quarter. Defensively, the Red Raiders held Hastings to without a made field goal and limited the Broncos to 1-for-14 shooting for the entire quarter. Five different NWC players scored during the decisive run.

Back-to-back three pointers by the Hastings duo of Emma Grenfell and Kaitlyn Schmit brought the Red Raider led down to eight (53-45) in the opening moments of the fourth quarter. Northwestern scored the next five points, however, on a jumper by Gustafson and a three-point play by De Jong to extend the lead back to double digits where it stayed for the final eight minutes. 

Northwestern shot 48% for the game, 40% (6/15) from the three-point arc, while limiting the Broncos to 31% from the floor. The Red Raiders also had a big edge on the glass (42-31) and have outrebounded their opponents for the eighth straight game. Renee Maneman dished out a game-high eight assists.

Hastings (8-3, 16-3) was led by Farmer with 26 points, 20 in the first half, and was the only Broncos player in the double figures. 

Northwestern led by nine early as Schuiteman drained her second three-pointer of the game to cap a 12-2 run for a 21-12 lead. Hastings closed the quarter with a 10-4 run, getting three-pointers by Mackenzie Willicott and Emma Grenfell, to get within three, 25-22, by quarter's end. 

Seven straight points scored by Farmer put Hastings in front 29-26 early in the second and the lead switched hands three times over the final six minutes, resulting in a 34-33 NWC lead at the break.

Of Note...

De Jong moved into 15th place all-time in scoring with 1,394pts, passing Samantha Kleinsasser (2010-14); De Jong moved up to 24th in career rebounding (552), passing Carolyn Penning (1977-81)

Birks passed Gena Schmidt (1996-00) and into 41st place in career scoring with 802 points

Gustafson passed JJ Korver (1989-93) and into 29th place all-time in rebounding