UNK WBB: NW Missouri Hits Late Three To Win Over Lopers 67-65

Kearney, Neb. – Sophomore guard Lindsey Kelderman hit a corner three with 19 seconds left to help Northwest Missouri State rally past Nebraska Kearney, 67-65, Saturday afternoon at the Health & Sports Center.  

The Lopers (8-2, 2-2) had a chance to win or tie the game but a corner three by senior reserve Lexi Moes (Smithville, Mo.) didn't drop with six seconds to go and then an inbound pass underneath the basket with 1.6 seconds left was grabbed by the Bearcats. With the win, Northwest (8-1, 3-1) ends a 13-game skid to the Lopers and snaps UNK's 24-game home court win streak.

"We didn't score when we had our opportunities. Late, we got a back screen where we wanted it but just missed the layup," said UNK head coach Drew Johnson. "The baseline out of bounds play was there (with 1.6 seconds left) … we needed to make a couple more plays."

UNK led for nearly 24 minutes and held its biggest lead, 52-41, with 2:54 left in the third quarter. However, Northwest outscored the Blue & Gold 20-10 over the final 10 minutes. They also won the opening quarter, 16-11, while UNK controlled the middle (combined score of 44-31).

A three from sophomore reserve Macy Bryant (Fremont) opened the final stanza and it was 58-47 Lopers. However, Northwest hit three triples in a three-minute span to make it just a one-possession game, 62-60, with 3:50 remaining. While UNK got a responding three from junior Meg Burns (Ankeny, Ia.), it wouldn't score again.

"I thought the middle of the fourth quarter is where the game really turned. We had to call a timeout before the media break and now they have all this confidence," said Johnson. "It's our fault we lost the fourth by a 20-10 margin. We didn't get the match ups switched like we needed to; we didn't get the adjustments made."

Five-five junior reserve guard Evelyn Vazquez hit two paint jumpers to make it a one-point game and set up Kelderman's winning shot. UNK didn't score in the final 3:24 as they missed four shots and committed three turnovers. The second was a shot clock violation with 48 seconds left and, after some timeouts, Kelderman got free in the left corner and buried her second triple of the afternoon. Junior guard Caely Kesten hit 4 of 7 treys to score a game-high 22 points and paced Northwest for much of the day.

"Credit Northwest for knocking down the shots and making the needed adjustments," said Johnson.

It was a big day for the UNK bench as redshirt freshman post Bailee Sobczak (Rapid City, S.D.) had a team-high 16 points and six rebounds, freshman forward Brinly Christensen (Lincoln SW) had eight points thanks to triples and junior forward Samantha Moore (Mullen) made her season-debut and had three points and two rebounds. Among the starters, point guard Jillian Aschoff (Lincoln Pius) had a double double (10 points, 10 assists).

"The free flowing, more aggressive nature (offense) has been good for us. It felt very Helter Skelter there when they were making their run so we wanted to pick and choose a little more," said Johnson.

Besides Kelderman and Kesten, Vazquez (4 for 4 FG shooting), reserve post Kelsey Fields (12 points, six rebounds) and starting guard Molly Hartnett (seven points, five assists and five rebounds had big days for Northwest.

UNK heads to Newman (1-9, 0-4) next Friday night.