On “Pink Zone” night on Thursday, the Spartans played host to the Warriors of Wisconsin Lutheran in a Northern Athletics Conference matchup. The Spartans defeated the Warriors of Wisconsin Lutheran in a thriller 72-69 in overtime.
The Spartans jumped off to a hot start behind the strong play of Freshmen forwards Kelsi McMahan and Becky Gifford and at the 15:42 mark of the first-half the Spartans led 10-2.
The Warriors came back with a 14-7 run to make the score 17-16 Spartans with 10 minutes remaining in the half.
The conference foes played a fairly even first half with only two lead changes and the Spartans leading by as many as eight points with 15 minutes to play in the opening half and the Warriors biggest lead being four.
Aurora would take a one point lead into the intermission at 35-34. For the half McMahan scored nine points on four-of-eight shooting from the field to lead the Spar
tans. The Warriors were led by senior forward Whitney Miller with 12 points.
The second half opened with an 8-0 run by the Warriors to help them take a 42-35 lead.
The Spartans battled back behind some hot shooting by sophomore guard Emily Beck and Gifford to tie the game at 58-58 with 1:45 remaining in the game.
With the game tied at 60-60 the Spartans scored on a basket by Gifford in the lane. The Warriors would answer with a basket of their own by junior forward Erika Laete to tie the game at 62-62.
The Spartans shot at the regulatio
n buzzer would not fall and the game went into overtime, knotted at 62.
The overtime would be all Spartans as they scored on a three-point basket by sophomore guard Jen Robinson on their first possession and never looked back.
AU built a seven point lead (69-62), the 7-0 run was capped off by a Robinson lay-up.
The Spartans held on despite a furious Warrior comeback and won 72-69.
Top Spartan performers were Gifford (23 points on 7-of-17 shooting and 14 rebounds) and Robinson (12 points and three assists).
The Warriors were led by Miller's 26 points and Laete (16 points and 10 rebounds).
For the game the Spartans won the rebounding battle 44-36, while shooting 45 percent (9-of-20) from three-point range and 45.2 percent (28-of-62) from the field.
With the win the Spartans improve to 6-11 in the conference and 8-15 overall. The Warriors dropped to 11-5 in the conference and 12-10 overall.
Next action for the Spartans is on Saturday February 13, 2010, as they travel to Dominican University to take on the Stars in a Northern Athletics Conference matchup. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. in River Forest, Ill.
