MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team defeated Crown College, 68-34, to clinch a berth in the 2018-19 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament. With the victory, Minnesota Morris is now 13-7 overall and 9-2 in conference play, while Crown falls to 3-17 overall and 1-10 in UMAC contests.

For the Cougar offense, Kendra Raths tallied 19 points, while Becca Holland recorded a double-double on 10 points and 10 rebounds.

"You never know coming into these games," head coach Tim Grove said. "We wanted to come out and take care of things defensively, which we really did a good job of."

The Cougars used a 10-2 run over the first 4:41 of the game to get things going. With the first quarter of play in the books, Minnesota Morris held a 15-7 lead over the visiting Storm.

For Raths, she scored eight points during the second period when Minnesota Morris outscored Crown College by a margin of 20-6. Following the halftime break, Raths scored six straight points to extend the Cougar lead to 41-13 with 8:19 to go in the third period. She then book-ended the third period with a 3-pointer with three seconds left.

During the fourth quarter, Morris outscored Crown, 18-17, to close out the game.

As a team, the Cougars went 26-of-55 from the field, which included 13-of-25 during the second half of action. The Cougars also capitalized on points off of turnovers as they outscored the Storm by 21-10 off of miscues.

The Cougars now head to Mankato, Minnesota, to take on Bethany Lutheran on Saturday, Feb. 2, with a tip-off time of 3 p.m. Bethany Lutheran heads into the contest tied for the UMAC lead with a record of 11-1.