SAU Shuts Down Wilson, Lady V-Hawks

1/28/06
Box Score
LA CROSSE, Wisc. -- The Queen Bees faced a tough task Saturday afternoon, having to stop Midwest Classic Conference leading scorer Anne Wilson. SAU was able to stop her and Viterbo earlier this season, but needed an encore performance. And that's just what they did, holding Wilson to 13 points in SAU's 67-50 win.

"We came out and tried to take a couple things away from Wilson defensively and kind of did the same thing we did the last time and see if she could respond to it and we were able to execute on the defensive end," head coach Amy Eagan said.

The win helps SAU keep pace with first place Iowa Wesleyan, who remains one game ahead of the Queen Bees in the conference standings.

SAU never trailed in the game, thanks, in part to their dominating post play. The Queen Bees scored 20 of their 28 first half points in the paint. Viterbo had just six points down low in the half. Freshman Marcie Wulff gave SAU an unexpected spark off the bench, scoring seven points, four of which came in the first period. Wulff also recorded four rebounds and two steals.

"Marcie gave us great minutes. Jill (Sweeney) was hurt a little bit and we told Marcie that she should be ready and she came in and did a great job of taking care of the ball," Eagan said.

The Queen Bees shot 48% in the first half, while holding Viterbo to 33% shooting in the half, helping SAU get out to a 28-21 halftime lead.

St. Ambrose looked like they may run away with the game in the second half, taking a 16 point lead on a three-pointer by Jennifer Goetz with 11 minutes remaining. Viterbo showed that they still had some fight left in them though, scoring seven consecutive points to cut the lead to single digits. That's when SAU took the game over, going on a 19-3 run in the next six minutes to put the game away.

"We wore them out by pushing the ball up the floor and continued to get stops at the defensive end of court," Eagan said.

Goetz, who entered the game as the number two scorer in the MCC, finished with 23 points on 10-for-15 shooting, and six rebounds. Cathy Mangan recorded 12 points, four assists, and four steals for SAU, while Ashlie Maher chipped in with eight points, including two big three-pointers.

Wilson, who was the only Lady V-Hawk in double figures, also grabbed 11 rebounds. Leah Olson and Audrah Berger each scored nine points for Viterbo.

SAU's will now travel to Oskaloosa, Iowa on Wednesday to face William Penn. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 and will be followed by the men's game against the Statesmen.

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