The Northwestern women’s basketball team was defeated 73-63 by Briar Cliff on Wednesday, Feb. 4. The Raiders fell to 8-7 in the GPAC and 14-9 overall.
Although they scored the first four points of the game, NW trailed the rest of the first in half after Briar Cliff went on a 9-2 run to bring the score to 16-10. The Raiders trailed by nine (32-23) just before half until a three-point shot from freshman guard Renee Maneman and a jumper from senior guard Paige O’Neal cut lead to only four with Briar Cliff leading 32-28 at the halfway point.
At the beginning of the second half, O’Neal tied the contest at 47 with a layup. Both teams exchanged blows until it was tied at 59 after a jump-shot from senior guard Karen Ettleman with a little over three minutes left to play. That was the closest the Raiders got as Briar Cliff embarked on a 14-4 run to end the contest.
Junior guard Katy Kuiper, Ettleman and O’Neal led the team with 12 points each. Ettleman also grabbed a team-high six rebounds. O’Neal recorded a team-high nine assists. Maneman scored 10 points and collected five rebounds.
NW shot a cool 33 percent from the field — 28 percent from three-point — and were out-rebounded 47-38.
The Northwestern men’s basketball team fell 92-62 against NAIA No. 18 Briar Cliff on Wednesday, Feb. 4. NW fell to 6-9 in the GPAC and 13-10 overall.
After bringing the score to within five (13-8) with a basket by sophomore guard Eli Ehnen, Briar Cliff went on a terror to give them a 20 point advantage (36-16) with just over six minutes to play in the first half. The Chargers went into halftime leading 51-28.
The second half was smooth sailing for Briar Cliff and they maintained a lead of at least 20 points throughout the rest of the game.
Freshman guard Riley Francis was a long bright spot for the team who scored a career-high 14 points. Junior forward Bryce Moss scored 11 points. Freshman guard Colton Kooima added 10 points. Freshman guard Nathan Wedel and sophomore forward Jordan Baker each grabbed five rebounds.
The Raiders shot a season-low 17 percent from three-point and 39 percent from the field. Briar Cliff out-rebounded NW 38-35.
The Raiders will play a men’s and women’s double-header against Doane on Saturday, Feb. 7 in Crete, Neb. with tipoffs at 2 and 4 p.m.
