ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team suffered a 68-55 defeat to the University of Northwestern on Friday evening in a UMAC semifinal. The loss ends the Cougars' season at 10-15 overall.

Despite a slow start, Minnesota Morris hung with Northwestern in the first quarter. The Cougars trailed, 4-0, and hadn't scored for nearly the first four minutes of the contest until Ella Van Kempen hit a mid-range jumper. That was followed by a layup from Jadyn Sondrol to knot it up at 4-4. Later in the quarter, Malory Anderson had a strip and score to give the Cougars an 8-7 lead, though that was answered on the other end by a three-pointer. Minnesota Morris would tie the game up again at 10-10 and 12-12 before Alison Terry ended the opening quarter with a triple to make it 15-12 in favor of the Eagles.

That three-pointer started a 9-0 run that extended into the second quarter as Northwestern took a 21-12 edge. A couple baskets from Tariq Brownotter brought the Cougars back within five, but the Eagles began to pull away as the half went on, taking a 39-22 lead into the break.

A fast start to the second half was needed from Minnesota Morris and the team delivered with a 7-0 run with baskets from Jay Kwateh, Sondrol, and Van Kempen to make it 39-29. Northwestern showed why it had earned the top seed in the UMAC by immediately hitting back with a 9-0 run and taking a 61-41 advantage into the final quarter.

The Cougars made one final push, holding the Eagles scoreless for more than three minutes to start the fourth quarter and using field goals from Anderson, Sondrol, and Brownotter to get back to a 61-47 deficit. After Northwestern broke its drought, Haley Wollschlager and Van Kempen scored again to finish off a 10-2 run that made it 63-51 halfway through the quarter. Unfortunately the clock was the opponent of Minnesota Morris as much as the Eagles were and a stretch of more than two minutes in which neither team scored was more to the benefit of the home team than it was to the Cougars. Maddie Smart finished off the scoring for Minnesota Morris in the final seconds, but it was too little, too late on the night.

Kwateh finished the game as the leading scorer for the Cougars with 13 points. Brownotter and Van Kempen each chipped in with eight apiece.