MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team allowed Martin Luther College back into the contest but sealed it at the free throw line and won its third straight game on Saturday afternoon with a 74-64 victory. The Cougars improve their record to 7-8 (4-1 UMAC) on the season.

A nice pick-me-up from Jay Kwateh helped Minnesota Morris overcome an otherwise slow start to the game on the offensive end. Kwateh's steal and layup put the Cougars up, 4-2, and she then added the final two buckets of the first quarter to turn a 16-13 hole into a 17-16 lead through 10 minutes.

Kwateh's hot hand continued as she opened the second quarter with a jumper from the wing. Later in the quarter, Jadyn Sondrol canned consecutive three-pointers to extend the Minnesota Morris advantage to 27-18 and four straight points from Claire Stark gave the Cougars a double-digit lead at 31-21 with 2:52 left in the half. With a defensive effort that held the Knights to just 2-of-13 shooting in the quarter, UMN Morris maintained that 10-point edge into the break at 33-23.

Back-to-back threes from Martin Luther's Lauren Paulsen in a space of 30 seconds in the third quarter gave the Knights some life as they pulled to within five, 38-33. That spark proved to be short-lived as Minnesota Morris outscored the Knights, 15-3, over the final five minutes to take a 56-39 lead into fourth.

Sondrol's fourth three-pointer of the afternoon increased the Minnesota Morris lead to 59-39 as the final quarter began. Martin Luther stayed with it despite the large deficit and a flurry of Cougar turnovers helped the Knights get back into it. A quick 9-0 run capped by a Lydia Feidt triple made it 66-61 with two minutes to play and forced a timeout from the Cougar bench. Order was restored when Maddy Grove grabbed an offensive rebound and then scored on a feed from Sondrol to push the lead to seven with just over a minute to play. With Martin Luther forced to foul to extend the contest, the Cougars took care of business at the stripe in the home stretch to secure the 10-point victory.

Both Kwateh and Sondrol each finished with 17 points on the afternoon. Stark came up with 12 off the bench and Grove finished with 10. Malory Anderson cleaned the glass with 11 rebounds on the day. 

Minnesota Morris stays at home next weekend, starting on Friday night with a 5:30 p.m. tilt against North Central University.