Loper Women Roll the RiverHawks, 79-50

Kearney, Neb. – Junior point guard Jillian Aschoff flirted with a triple double once again and Nebraska Kearney outscored Northeastern State by 20 points in the second quarter to win, 79-50, Saturday afternoon at the Health & Sports Center.

This was the only meeting of the year between the Lopers (17-5, 10-3 MIAA) and RiverHawks (10-12, 6-7). UNK now leads the series by a healthy 19-3 margin.

The ‘Hawks, from Tahlequah, Okla., came out firing to the tune of 21 first quarter points that featured four threes including one by freshman post Deyanna Douglas. She had seven points and two steals in the first 10 minutes as NSU held leads of 15-10 and 20-13. However, they tallied only 29 points the rest of the afternoon.

“We didn’t dictate pace in the first quarter, and we came out and kind of reacted to them,” said Loper head coach Drew Johnson. “In the second quarter we did a much better job of guarding, really locking down and forcing them to play at our pace.”

UNK went 9 of 13 from the field, including 3 of 6 from deep, to take the second quarter by a 27-7 margin. Three different players had six points with NSU having more turnovers (four) than shots made (two). Things grinded to halt in the third quarter as the teams combined for 20 points on 6 of 28 shooting but the Lopers warmed up again in the fourth, scoring 21 points thanks to 12 buckets.

“We did a good job keeping the energy, keeping the pressure on,” said Johnson. “There wasn’t a lot of flow in the second half, but we got going again the fourth.”

Aschoff (Lincoln Pius) had 14 rebounds (13 defensive), 11 points, nine assists and two steals. Playing 29 minutes, she had a stat line Thursday night of 16/12/6 and now has a team-best three double doubles. She helped UNK shoot 53% from the field with NSU throwing up rocks over the final 30 minutes to be at 28%.

“Jill is such a good player and lets the game come to her. In the first quarter, she figures how you’re going to guard her and then tries everything in her power to exploit it from the second through the fourth,” said Johnson. “She’s been in attack mode more lately so she’s a hard guard right now.”

Plus 22 on the glass, UNK also got 13 points from Mullen senior Samantha Moore and 12 points on four threes from Iowa graduate Meg Burns. Finally, seven others scored between four- and eight-points including Serbian freshman Tara Biocanin and Kansas junior Saniya Simmons.

“Our team does something called ‘put ups’ after the game and they felt like Saniya came in and changed the pace (in the second quarter) and changed the aggressiveness,” said Johnson. “Credit to her for coming in and really putting pressure on them.”

Douglas ended up with 15 points in just 17 minutes of work with freshman wing Annaston Brown (10) the only other ‘Hawk in double figures.

UNK heads to Wichita on Wednesday to face the Newman Jets (7-16, 2-12), the only meeting between the two this winter.