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The Golden Eagles dropped a pair of conference games this weekend at home. On Friday, Mary won handily 72-51, while Northern State came back to defeat Minnesota, Crookston 67-66 on a layup with ten seconds remaining.
Minnesota, Crookston is now 8-12 on the season and 5-11 in Northern Sun Intercollege Conference play.
Leading scorer Brittani Wiese and Carli Bunning each sat out Saturday's game with injuries.
"We had some tough games this weekend," said Golden Eagle Head Coach Mike Roysland. "We had a couple injuries this weekend but on Saturday we kept it close and gave ourselves a chance to win. We just couldn't make it happen."
Coach Roysland's bench gets even thinner with Whitney Brown and Jaya Perkins sustaining season-ending injuries before the season started and now Wiese an Bunning.
"We are hoping to get Carli back by Friday," Roysland said. "With Brit, we'll know more later, hopefully by [Tuesday]. It's a knee issue and we'll find out exactly what it is, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
"It's not like it hasn't happened to someone else before, though," Roysland continued.
Whatever the outcome is, Coach Roysland like what he saw from his young players on Saturday.
“I was proud,” he said. “It has been a season of frustation. This is the fifth game we lost like that. We’ve had a lot of games where we come so close and want to make it happen, and that's the frustrating part about it. Our attitude is definitely a no-quit one, and that’s the refreshing part. Our youth stepped up quite well, especially in Saturday's game.”
Mary vs. UMC
Senior forward Megan Eul led Minnesota, Crookston with 19 points, while Wiese added seven points in just ten minutes of play. Bunning recorded a team-high eight rebounds in 30 minutes of play.
Linda Murray led the Marauders with 14 points and added eight rebounds. Shaunna Knife posted 11 rebounds and four points.
"We got off to a fairly decent start," said Coach Roysland. "We were playing right with Mary. Then when Brit went down halfway through the first half I thought we were still playing fine. In the second half we just didn't put the ball in the basket. We had some good looks, but I don't think we were pressing. I just think everyone was trying to come up with a good shot but we just didn't put them in there. Everyone was trying to step up and we got frustrated not putting in shots."
The Golden Eagles dropped a pair of conference games this weekend at home. On Friday, Mary won handily 72-51, while Northern State came back to defeat Minnesota, Crookston 67-66 on a layup with ten seconds remaining.
Minnesota, Crookston is now 8-12 on the season and 5-11 in Northern Sun Intercollege Conference play.
Leading scorer Brittani Wiese and Carli Bunning each sat out Saturday's game with injuries.
"We had some tough games this weekend," said Golden Eagle Head Coach Mike Roysland. "We had a couple injuries this weekend but on Saturday we kept it close and gave ourselves a chance to win. We just couldn't make it happen."
Coach Roysland's bench gets even thinner with Whitney Brown and Jaya Perkins sustaining season-ending injuries before the season started and now Wiese an Bunning.
"We are hoping to get Carli back by Friday," Roysland said. "With Brit, we'll know more later, hopefully by [Tuesday]. It's a knee issue and we'll find out exactly what it is, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.
"It's not like it hasn't happened to someone else before, though," Roysland continued.
Whatever the outcome is, Coach Roysland like what he saw from his young players on Saturday.
“I was proud,” he said. “It has been a season of frustation. This is the fifth game we lost like that. We’ve had a lot of games where we come so close and want to make it happen, and that's the frustrating part about it. Our attitude is definitely a no-quit one, and that’s the refreshing part. Our youth stepped up quite well, especially in Saturday's game.”
Mary vs. UMC
Senior forward Megan Eul led Minnesota, Crookston with 19 points, while Wiese added seven points in just ten minutes of play. Bunning recorded a team-high eight rebounds in 30 minutes of play.
Linda Murray led the Marauders with 14 points and added eight rebounds. Shaunna Knife posted 11 rebounds and four points.
"We got off to a fairly decent start," said Coach Roysland. "We were playing right with Mary. Then when Brit went down halfway through the first half I thought we were still playing fine. In the second half we just didn't put the ball in the basket. We had some good looks, but I don't think we were pressing. I just think everyone was trying to come up with a good shot but we just didn't put them in there. Everyone was trying to step up and we got frustrated not putting in shots."
The Golden Eagles got out to a 14-6 lead in the opening five minutes, 40 seconds, but a 10-0 run by the Marauders turned the tables and Mary led 16-14 with 12:13 left. Neither team led by more than two for the remainder of the first half with Mary taking a 32-30 lead into the break.
The Marauders came out on fire for the second half and went on a 9-2 run in the opening four minutes, going up 43-32 lead.
Mary wouldn't trail the rest of the way, stretching the lead to as much as 28 at one point.
The Golden Eagles shot just 25.7 percent (19-74) from the field, their second lowest percentage in a game this season. They shot 18.8 percent (3-16) from three-point land. Mary shot 45 percent (27-60) from the field and was 38.9 percent (7-18) from beyond the arc.
Northern State vs. UMC
Freshman forward Kenzie Church led Minnesota, Crookston with 12 points, while Eul, sophomore forward Carly Rothstein and junior center Laurie Tyson each added ten points. Rothstein and Tyson each recorded six rebounds.
Northern State's Emily Becken led all scorers with 27 points, while Alison Kusler recorded 12 rebounds.
"When we knew we would be without Brit and Carli our plan was just to chip away at Northern State," Roysland said. "We gathered our thoughts tried to figure out how we'd go about this. I knew we were little short with our depth. I thought everybody played their role very well. One more basket around the four minute mark of the second half or if we got a few more stops it would've been a different situation."
The Golden Eagles held an early 10-9 lead before the Wolves went on a 9-0 run to go up 18-10 with 13:13 left in the first half. Minnesota, Crookston answered right back, though, with an 8-0 run to tie the score back up at 18-18 with 9:31 left.
The Golden Eagles never got the lead after that but kept it close, going into halftime down 35-33.
Minnesota, Crookston opened the second half with a 10-2 to take a 43-37 lead thanks to a Rothstein three to close the run with 17:19 left.
Later in the second half with the teams knotted at 55-55 with 7:20 on the clock, Minnesota, Crookston went on another 10-2 run to go up by eight points, 65-57, with about four minutes remaining.
The Golden Eagles led 66-61 with about two minutes left but the Wolves would go on to score the final six points. Becken scored a layup with ten seconds remaining. Following a Minnesota, Crookston timeout, freshman guard Ebony Livingston took the inbounds pass just past half court and took the ball to the basket. Her layup rolled off the rim and out as time expired.
The Golden Eagles shot 41 percent (25-61) from the field and was 46.7 percent (7-15) from three-point land. Northern State shot 39.4 percent (26-66) from the field and 33.3 percent (5-15) from beyond the arc.
Minnesota, Crookston will go on the road next weekend to face Bemidji State on Friday and Minnesota, Duluth on Saturday.
NSIC Standings
Wayne State 15-2 21-2
Augustana 14-3 17-4
Mary 12-5 15-6
Minnesota, Duluth 10-6 13-7
Minnesota State 10-7 14-7
Winona State 9-8 14-9
MSU Moorhead 8-8 11-9
Northern State 8-9 13-10
St. Cloud State 8-9 11-10
Bemidji State 6-10 8-13
Concordia, St. Paul 6-11 9-14
Minnesota, Crookston 5-11 8-12
Southwest Minn. State 4-13 5-16
Upper Iowa 2-15 2-19
