DULUTH, Minn. — The most prolific season in the Division II era for Southern Nazarene women's basketball came to an end Friday night, as the No. 8 seed Crimson Storm fell to No. 1 seed Minnesota Duluth, 66-50, in the first round of the NCAA Central Region tournament.
SNU ends the year 27-5, claiming its first Great American Conference regular season championship, its second GAC Tournament championship and second NCAA tournament bid along the way.
"We had one heck of a year," senior Lauryn Reither said. "This doesn't define what we did for our university and everyone who stood behind us. We're truly blessed to be here. We had to win to get here and not every team that's here can say that."
Senior Cassandra Awatt led the Crimson Storm with her 11th double-double of the season, scoring 17 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, 10 of those in the first half. She also had five steals, tying a season-high. Payton Jones scored 10 points off the bench, and was the only other player in double-figures for SNU.
Brooke Olson led all scorers with 32 points for the Bulldogs, hitting 15-of-22 from the field. Maesyn Theisen was the only other player in double figures for the Bulldogs, finishing with 10 points with four assists.
SNU shot just 35 percent from the field for the game, including 30.7 percent in the second half. Duluth ended the game at 51 percent shooting and 61.5 percent in the final two quarters.
Facing the No.1 seed Bulldogs and a raucous home crowd at Romano Gymnasium, the Crimson Storm put up a fight early on. SNU overcame early foul trouble for Hannah Giddey, who picked up two fouls in the first five minutes of the game, to take a 14-13 lead after the first quarter.
"The early foul trouble for our basketball team specifically got us," said SNU coach Trent May. "But we did a good job. Georgia Adams did a great job of battling and scoring right back at Olson, so that was a good adjustment for us early on. I think our girls battled and played hard. Obviously things didn't go our way in some facets that we needed them to."
The Bulldogs grabbed an 18-16 lead early in the second quarter, but the Storm responded with their best fun of the first half, running off seven straight point to take a 23-18 lead with 3:38 to play in the second quarter.
However, that moment turned out to be the high-water mark of the game for the Crimson Storm. Over the next nine minutes of game action, spanning the end of the second quarter and the first half of the third quarter, the Bulldogs went on a 24-3 run to seize control of the game, leading 42-26 with 5:46 to go in the third quarter.
Duluth led by as many as 24 in the period, and outscored the Crimson Storm, 24-12, shooting 10-of-14 from the field. Meanwhile SNU went just 1-of-10 from the field to begin the quarter, unable to respond to the offensive onslaught from the Bulldogs.
"Unfortunately in the second half we let her get to her sweet spot too often," May said of Olson, who scored nine points in the third quarter. "She's really good and you can't let her get to where she wants to go."
The Crimson Storm didn't go quietly into the night, cutting the Bulldog lead to just 10 at 58-48 on a Jones 3-pointer with 5:58 to play. Unfortunately, that's as close as SNU would get, as the Bulldogs closed with an 8-2 run to end the Storm's season.
