Lexus Eagle Chasing scored a team-high 15 points and reached 1,000 points for her Cougar career, but it wasn’t enough as the Vikings remained undefeated in UMAC play.
MANKATO, Minn.– The University of Minnesota Morris women’s basketball team battled hard to keep it close with Bethany Lutheran College on Saturday, but Hanna Geistfeld proved to be too much for the second time this season, scoring 33 points and tacking on 21 rebounds to lead the Vikings to a 75-63 win over the Cougars. UMN Morris falls to 9-14 (6-6 UMAC), while BLC improves to 17-6 (12-0 UMAC).
Minnesota Morris senior Lexus Eagle Chasing reached a career milestone in the contest. Coming in with 991 career points, she scored a team-high 15 in the game to top 1,000 points for her Cougar career.
A pair of Haley Wollschlager buckets to start the game helped Minnesota Morris to its first of three leads in the first quarter. The last of the three came off a Lexie Winter layup to stake the Cougars to a 13-11 edge, but Taryn Christensen nailed consecutive three-pointers late in the frame to put the Vikings ahead, 17-13, after one.
The run reached 11-0 as Bethany Lutheran scored the first five points of the second quarter to take a 22-13 lead. Minnesota Morris was able to get within six on multiple occasions, but BLC once again closed the quarter strong, scoring the last five points to take a 35-24 lead at halftime.
Five points early in the third quarter from Eagle Chasing put her over the top on her quest for 1,000 career points. A three-pointer just over two minutes into the quarter was the shot that did it, pulling the Cougars to within ten, 41-31. After going down by as many as 15 points in the middle of the quarter, Minnesota Morris fought back with a 7-0 run led by Justine Day and Grace Olson. The Cougars then held Bethany Lutheran scoreless for nearly the final three minutes of the quarter and scored five points in the process to shrink the deficit to 52-45.
After once again getting as close as six points early on in the fourth quarter, a 7-0 run from Bethany Lutheran essentially put the game away. The Cougars were never within single-digits again the rest of the way, despite scoring the final five points of the game to cut it to twelve.
In addition to her 15 points, Eagle Chasing added a game-high six steals. Ella Van Kempen also hit double-figures with 11 and Day came off the bench to score 10.
Minnesota Morris returns home to Jim Gremmels Court next weekend to wrap up the regular season. First up is a Friday night contest with the University of Wisconsin-Superior at 5:30 p.m.
