UNK Women Win in Maryville

Guards Jillian Aschoff and Myleigh Weers scored 19 apiece to help Nebraska Kearney get off to a fast start and down Northwest Missouri State, 66-51, Thursday night in Maryville.

This is the Lopers (10-8, 3-4) first road win in six chances and allows them to sweep the season series from the Bearcats (10-7, 3-4) for a second straight year.

Everything worked for UNK in the first quarter as they zoomed out to a 20-8 lead and never looked back. The nearly seven-minute stretch featured scoring from six different players led by Aschoff (seven) and Weers (six).

"I thought we were really locked into the scout. We really executed well and had a good attention to detail," said UNK head coach Drew Johnson on the KRVN Radio post-game show. "Fourth quarter wasn't quite good enough but sometimes it's hard when you're up 21 points."

While Northwest closed the first quarter on an 8-4 run, they never made a serious run the rest of the way. The 'Cats finished plus eight on the glass and both teams shot about 42% from the field, but UNK scored 23 of its points off 24 Northwest turnovers. The Lopers had just 11 miscues and held the home team to five second quarter points.

"I thought we had them off balance for a lot of that game. They are really talented, but we were able to speed them up a little bit and not let them settle in as much as they would like to," said Johnson.

Weers (Diller), who fouled out in 27 minutes of work, reached her tally by going 8 of 15 from the field with Aschoff (Lincoln Pius) making 7 of 14 shots. She also had five assists, four boards, and three steals. Next, Lincoln junior Brinly Christensen came off the bench to have eight points (2 of 4 threes) and two rebounds with Kansas senior guard Saniya Simmons at four points, four assists, three rebounds, two steals and five fouls drawn. Finally, Serbian junior post Tara Biocanin had eight rebounds and seven points.

Eleven different 'Cats scored led by reserve Avery Yosten (10) with fellow bench mob member Maggie Collins close to a double double (nine points, six rebounds).

UNK heads to Missouri Western State on Saturday afternoon. The Griffons (5-11, 1-6) fell to nationally-ranked Fort Hays State tonight, 66-60.