Northwestern College made a season-high 15 three-pointers in earning an 81-62 road win over #15 Hastings College in a conference match-up played this afternoon in Hastings, Neb. The Red Raiders extend their win streak to nine games and move into a first place tie in the GPAC with an 8-1 record, 12-1 overall.Â
Kassidy De Jong poured in a game-high 25 points, making 5-of-11 three-pointers, and
Sammy Blum netted 20, continuing her torrid long-range shooting with six three-pointers.
Breana Schuiteman (15pts, 4 3pters) and
Haley Birks (12pts) were also in double figures.
A Schuiteman three-pointer put Northwestern in front for good (14-11) with one minute left in the opening quarter, a period that ended with the Red Raiders up one, 14-13. Northwestern then scored the next 12 points, getting a three-point play by De Jong followed by a jumper in the paint by Birks to go up 26-13 at the four-minute mark. The Red Raider lead was 12, 33-21, at intermission.
Consecutive three-pointers by Blum and Schuiteman, followed by a basket by
Darbi Gustafson, capped an 8-2 Northwestern run at the start of the third quarter to put head coach
Chris Yaw's squad up 18 (41-23). Another Blum three-pointer pushed the lead to 20 at the five-minute mark and a Schuiteman three-point play put the finishing touch on a 9-1 run to give Northwestern its largest lead to date, 57-31, at the 2:28 mark of the third quarter.Â
Northwestern put its finishing touch on the host Broncos with a 12-3 run with just minutes gone by in the fourth quarter, using two three-pointers by Schuiteman and another by De Jong, for a 77-50 advantage with 3:49 left to play.
The Red Raiders shot 52% from the field and 48% (15/31) from the three-point line, the third best percentage from beyond the arc of the season. De Jong, Schuiteman and
Taylor VanderVelde all pulled down five boards to help the Red Raiders with a slight 27-24 edge on the glass. Gustafson and
Jada Cunningham both dished out four assists.Â
Hastings shot 38% for the game and was limited to 20% (3/15) from the three-point line. Gabby Grasso led the Broncos with 14 points.Â
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