MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris women's basketball team survived and advanced on Wednesday night with a hard-fought 70-65 win over the University of Northwestern at James Gremmels Court. The Cougars move to 16-10 overall on the season and will travel to play the No. 1 seed University of Wisconsin-Superior on Saturday with a berth in the NCAA Tournament on the line.

A Claire Stark layup on a nice post entry feed and then a pull-up jumper from Jay Kwateh staked Minnesota Morris to a 4-0 lead. With the game tied at 6-6, Alice Wilkinson drove in for a layup and then after Northwestern took its lone lead of the contest at 9-8, drained a three-pointer to start a 7-0 run that put the Cougars up for good. Wilkinson's contributions continued as she tracked down a pair of offensive rebounds that eventually led to a Shelby Mortenson layup as the Cougars took a 19-13 lead after 10 minutes.

Wilkinson continued to be the story of the first half as she scored to open the second quarter with another layup before stepping into a jumper to cap a 6-0 opening run to the period that left Minnesota Morris with a 25-13 advantage and forced Northwestern into a timeout. Next it was Stark's turn to spark the offense, scoring on a reverse layup to start a sequence in which she scored three straight Cougar buckets. Though the margin was double-digits most of the quarter, a couple late shots from the Eagles helped them make it 33-25 at the break.

In a back-and-forth third quarter, Northwestern trimmed the deficit to six early on before Minnesota Morris took its largest lead of the night. Working hard down low, the Cougars fought off that challenge from the Eagles and went on top, 51-37, when Mortenson scored with just over three minutes left in the frame. UNW answered right back with a 6-0 run of its own and the teams headed to the final quarter with UMN Morris in front, 55-45.

Northwestern made its intentions known right away as fourth quarter began, scoring five in a row to make it 55-50. Recently back from injury, Lexus Redthunder had two huge baskets off of inbounds plays, the second of which kept Minnesota Morris ahead, 61-57, as the clock rolled under five minutes to play. 

The Cougar lead was 64-59 after a Maddy Grove steal and layup with 2:50 left, but Northwestern's Ella Falk nailed mid-range jumpers on consecutive possessions to pull the Eagles to within one, 64-63, with two minutes to go. Needing a bucket to slow the Eagle momentum, Malory Anderson found a cutting Grove for a layup with 1:47 left. After a pair of empty Northwestern possessions, Jadyn Sondrol delivered the dagger as she banked in a desperation three late in the shot clock to push the Cougar advantage to 69-63 with 23 seconds left. When Grove made one of two at the line with 13 ticks to go, it was a three-possession game and the Eagles could manage just one more field goal with less than a second left as Minnesota Morris held on.

Grove and Mortenson each had 12 points and eight rebounds on the night, while Wilkinson had all 11 of her points in the first half. Stark also reached double-figures with 10. Anderson notched eight rebounds, four assists, and two steals, while Kwateh had seven points, five steals, and four assists. 

With a 72-59 win over North Central University on Wednesday, No. 1 seed UW-Superior earned the right to host Saturday's UMAC title game against Minnesota Morris. Tip-off between the Cougars and Yellowjackets is slated for 4 p.m.