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Rangers capture Wildcat women

By Journal Sports Staff

KENOSHA, Wis. — At his weekly press conference Tuesday, Northern Michigan University head women’s basketball coach Troy Mattson said he thought the Wildcats were in for a “tough, tough game” with Wisconsin-Parkside on Thursday night.

Despite the Rangers having a losing record, he was right as the WPU upset Northern 72-64.

When NMU played Parkside in early December, the Rangers weren’t healthy and Northern blew them out 72-39. However, Parkside was back to full strength in Thursday’s rematch, outscoring NMU 14-6 in the second quarter to take an 11-point lead, 32-21, into halftime.

Though the Wildcats got a career-high 21 points from senior Darby Youngstrom, it wasn’t enough to keep them from falling to 9-3 and into a first-place tie in the GLIAC North with Michigan Tech, which defeated Purdue Northwest 67-49.

Northern got off to a decent start, going up 11-5 following a Youngstrom triple and Erin Honkala layup. However, Parkside tied the game at 15-15 on a layup by Carolina Rahkonen, while a trey by Alyssa Nelson gave the Rangers an 18-15 advantage going into the second quarter.

Parkside went up by 10 with 8:02 left in the second at 25-15 on a layup by Ali Bettencourt and pushed its lead to 28-15 on a 3-pointer by Nelson with 4:16 to go. The Wildcats got a bucket from Lexi Smith to cut the Rangers’ lead to nine before extending back into double digits by halftime.

Northern whittled the Rangers’ advantage to nine twice in the third quarter on layups by Youngstrom, but Parkside stayed comfortably ahead at 46-33 going into the fourth.

A three-point play from Bettencourt extended Parkside’s lead to 17 at 58-41 with 5:38 remaining, but then NMU started a rally. A Liz Lutz triple got the Wildcats within 10 of the Rangers with 1:28 left and to nine at 69-60 on a three-point play by Smith.

The Wildcats travel to Purdue Northwest at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.

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