February 22

Box Score

Second-seeded Northland College won their third straight game of the season over the University of Minnesota-Morris on Friday, but today’s game meant a little more, as the LumberJills advanced to the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) postseason tournament championship game with a 72-49 win.

Northland didn’t take long to establish themselves on the court, owning a six-point lead only five minutes into the game. That lead increased to 35-17 with 7:25 left in the first half before the LumberJills maintained a 46-28 lead at halftime.  The Jills run in the first half was 33-12 over 10 minutes, and Northland put up 21 points over a 4:21 stretch, at one point hitting four consecutive three-point shots, one by Mel Waytashek, another by Jessica Graham, and a pair by Lindsey Hamm.  Coach Roiger felt like the Jills did everything right on offense for a period of time, "We ran our break, moved the ball to the open person, scored inside and outside, and made open shots.  It was fun to watch!"

UM-Morris cut Northland’s lead to 13 on an Arielle Anderson lay-up at the 16:25 mark, but the Cougars’ couldn't’t ever get hot, as they finished with a 26.4 shooting percentage. Morris’ 1-for-14 from behind the 3-point line didn’t help either. Northland doubled their opponents in shooting, making 43.6 percent of their field goal attempts and 44.4 percent of their shots from long range en route to routing third-seeded Morris 72-49.

"It was an excellent team performance, perhaps our best of the year," said Coach Roiger.  "Now we will have our work cut out for us tomorrow.  We need to get fired up again to play an excellent team in Northwestern, and to do it on their court.  I feel like we are playing our best basketball of the season right now, and it would be nice to come out tomorrow and leave it all on the court while playing well."

Besides the difference in shooting percentages, both teams’ statistical totals were almost equal. UMM out-rebounded the taller ‘Jills team 48-46, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds.  The Jills did get to the line more often making 16 free throws to only 10 for Morris.

Chelsea Lundgren scored a game-high 22 for Northland, making 9 of her 11 attempts from the field. Lundgren also tallied eight rebounds and five steals in the win.

Joining Lundgren was Graham, who went 4-for-5 from 3-point land to record 14 points, while Hamm added 11. Laura Fisher was dominant on the boards, grabbing 14 rebounds for the LumberJills.  Evelyn Hoosier had 6 assists in the contest and no turnovers.

Arielle Anderson was Minnesota-Morris’ only player in double digits, as the senior finished her collegiate career with 16 points.  The Cougars finish their 2007-08 season at 15-11 (9-5 UMAC).

Northland (16-10, 10-4 UMAC) advances to the postseason tournament championship, having last won the tournament in 2004. The Jills will face the top seed and conference champions Northwestern Eagles, who defeated Presentation College easily in the second game Saturday. The championship game is scheduled for a 4:00 PM start on Saturday and will be broadcast live on the web.