MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – For the sixth straight season the Cougars (14-11, 12-2 UMAC) can call themselves a UMAC Champion after winning 72-55 over North Central (8-17, 3-11 UMAC) on Saturday afternoon. The Cougars will share the title with Northwestern after both going 12-2 in conference play.
Morris had four players score in double figures on the afternoon, led by
Emily Auch's 17.
Kayla Kraemer had 16 points on 6-10 shooting. She was 4-7 from behind the arc.
Jessica Love scored 11 points off the bench and
Tori Holt added ten.
Morris jumped all over the Rams on Saturday, taking a 15-6 lead after a three form
Bailey Nordean with just over 14 minutes to play. Auch had six of the first 15 points for UMM in the game. The Rams would recover and pulled within two at 17-15. The Cougars responded with a run, scoring nine of the next 11 points in the game and took a 26-17 lead with under ten minutes to play.
The game entered a little bit of scoreless drought with neither team changing the score for over three minutes of play. The Rams would end the drought with a jumper cutting the Cougar lead to seven. The lead for the Cougars would shrink to five before UMM would score again. North Central would hold Morris to just three points over a seven minute stretch to cut the lead all the way down to one. The Cougars finished the half with a four point spurt to take a 33-28 lead into the break.
Minnesota Morris started the second half on a 7-2 run and grabbed a ten point lead at 40-30, forcing a NCU timeout. UMM would extend their lead to 48-30 before the Rams got back in the scoring column.
Maja Coomes hit a jumper to push the Cougars lead to 21, their largest of the game up to that point.
North Central would never recover and the Cougars earned a 72-55 win. The Cougars outscored North Central 32-20 in points in the paint on the evening. The bench added 23 points. Morris shot 55.6% in the second half as a team to pull away.
UMM will be the two seed in the UAMC Tournament and host St. Scholastica at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
