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Nov. 16, 2007

Box Score

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -

            After playing to a tie through the first half, the University of Northern Iowa women's basketball team used a 13-2 run early in the second half to get past Weber State 62-52 Friday night in the McLeod Center. Nicole Clausen led UNI with a career-high 15 points. Freshman Erin Brocka finished with her first career double-double, scoring 10 and grabbing 10 rebounds.

            The Panthers (2-1) started out slow, hitting just one of their first eight shots. Senior Megan Keefe put the Panthers on the board first, but WSU (1-1) followed with a 9-0 run that put the Wildcats in front 9-2 with 14:44 left in the half.

            Jacqui Kalin hit a jumper to kick start a Panther run, and Traci Ollendieck kept it going with a three from the top of the key that made it 9-7 in favor of WSU with 12:16 on the clock. Brocka connected on a pair of free throws to tie the game at nine at the 10-minute mark, and Brocka found Clausen on the baseline for a little jumper that put UNI back in front, 11-9 with 9:39 left in the half.

            Lizzie Boeck came off the bench to score seven straight points for the Panthers, four coming off offensive rebounds and putbacks and the last three coming from behind the arc. Boeck's run put the Panthers back in front, 18-14 at the five-minute mark.

            Kristin Iehl connected on a pair of free throws to stretch UNI's lead to six, 20-14, but a jumper from Tashina Taylor ended the Panthers' 9-0 run and brought the score to 20-16.

            Caitlin Anderson trimmed the Panther lead to one, 20-19.  Boeck made one of two free-throw attempts to make it a two-point game, but Sara Tuomi connected on a pair to tie the game at 21-21 with 1:11 on the clock. Schnibbe put the Wildcats in the lead with a pair of free throws with 45 seconds left, but a layup from Keefe with 14 seconds left sent the teams into the break tied at 23.

            The teams traded early baskets and remained knotted at 25-25 with 18:39 to play. A layup from Rachel Madrigal and a jumper from Kalin gave UNI a four-point advantage, but Caitlin Anderson cut that in half with a layup at 16:09 that made the score 29-27. Clausen connected from behind the arc after an offensive rebound by Madrigal. Two possessions later, Kalin scored on a jump shot to give UNI a 34-27 lead. A layup from Clausen and a pair of free throws by Alexa Mennen capped a 13-2 run by UNI that put the Panthers in front 38-27 with 12:33 to play.

            Weber State scored the next five points to make it a two-possession game at 38-32, but UNI would never allow the Wildcats to get any closer than six points on the way to the win.

            "It wasn't pretty, but we found a way to win," UNI head coach Tanya Warren said. "We came out hard in the second half and found a way to get it done. Good teams find a way to win, and we did that tonight."

            After shooting 26.7 percent (8-of-30) from the floor in the first half, UNI shot 46.2 percent (12-of-26) in the second 20 minutes to shoot 35.7 percent (20-of-56) in the game. The Panthers were 5-of-18 (27.8 percent) from three-point range and connected on 17-of-22 (77.3 percent) free throws.

            UNI held the rebounding advantage, 44-33. The Panthers turned 14 offensive rebounds into 16 second-chance points.

            The Panthers will return to action on Sunday when they host in-state foe Iowa at 3:05 p.m. in the McLeod Center.