Panther women win two in a row

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TONI FORTMANN

The Panther women’s basketball team notched wins over the IUPUI Jaguars and North Dakota Fighting Hawks over the past week.

ELIOT CLOUGH, Associate Sports Editor

The UNI women’s basketball team took their talents to IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis) to garner another win on Nov. 30. The Panthers picked up another win in defeating the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota in the McLeod Center on Tuesday night.

In Indianapolis, the Panthers were able to grab the lead going into the second quarter, 13-11, and never looked back, outpacing the Jaguars to a low scoring final of 53-40.

Karlie Rucker, a sophomore guard, continued her stellar season, and lead the Panthers in scoring rebounds. She tied for the team lead with Heidi Hillyard in assists. Rucker was able to score 14 points and haul in six rebounds for the purple and gold.

Low scoring was the theme of the night, and the box score reflected just that. While the Panthers were able to garner a double-digit win, UNI only shot 31.8 percent from beyond the arc as well as 39.2 percent for their total field goal percentage.

IUPUI also struggled from beyond the arc, making only three of their 15 shots from the three-point- line, thus shooting 20 percent.

Overall, field goal percentage was also not up to par for the Jaguars, who were only able to get 32.6 percent of their shots to fall.

In their game against North Dakota, the scoring trend continued. The Panthers were able to round out the first quarter with a 13-11 lead and never let up.

Although UNI was outscored by four points in the fourth quarter, they were able to hold on for the victory, 64-60.

Mikaela Morgan was the leading scorer of the night for the Panthers with 17 points. Morgan also played the role of thief, leading the team in steals with three takeaways.

The three-point percentage was once again not ideal for the Panthers, who were only able to shoot 29.4 percent from downtown.

Although North Dakota was able to outshoot UNI, points off turnovers proved to be the deciding factor as the Panthers were able to outscore their opponent 19-9 off the Hawks turnovers.

Up next, the women’s basketball team will take on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City on Sunday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m.