NWU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Prairie Wolves End Season With Loss At Simpson
INDIANOLA, Iowa – Nebraska Wesleyan women’s basketball season came to a close on Tuesday night (Feb. 19) in the American Rivers Conference Tournament with Simpson College taking down the Prairie Wolves 92-72 at Cowles Fieldhouse in Indianola, Iowa.
NWU ends the regular season with a 12-14 overall record. Simpson advances to the tournament semifinals where they play at No. 2 seed Loras College on Thursday.
The Prairie Wolves were within eight points after the opening quarter, then the second quarter was a ten minute span to forget. Simpson outscored the Prairie Wolves 27-6 in the second quarter with NWU making only 3-19 shot attempts going 0-7 from 3-point range.
Nebraska Wesleyan made a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 17-14 with 1:07 left in the first quarter. The Prairie Wolves then went scoreless until the 5:19 mark of the second half. During that span, Simpson scored 14 straight points to go up 31-14 and they would extend the lead to 49-20 at the break.
In the second half the Prairie Wolves improved their shooting making 19-30 a very impressive 64 percent of their shot attempts including 8-12 from 3-point land. They outscored Simpson 27-16 in the fourth quarter but the lead had been too big to overcome as the Storm got up by as many as 34 points in the third quarter.
Caitlin Navratil ended the season on a good note scoring 26 points, including 18 in the second half. The league’s leading scorer also had a team-high six rebounds, handed out four assists and made two steals. She ends the season with a school record 525 points.
Mikenzie Delgado was the other NWU player to reach double figures scoring 10 points on 4-5 shooting. She was 2-3 from 3-point range.
Jenna Taylor led Simpson posting a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds. The Storm shot 51.9 percent from the floor and held a 42-30 advantage on the glass.
Playing in their final game in a Prairie Wolves uniform, BaileY Hallgreen Meehan scored nine points, Morgan Nishida had nine points including the final basket of the game and Klaire Phillips scored six points with three steals.
