Queen Bees knock off NCAA Division II Upper Iowa

FAYETTE, Iowa—

The St. Ambrose Queen Bees made it eight wins in a row with a 83-77 win over NCAA Division II Upper Iowa University.

The Queen Bees slowly built a lead in the first half and had just enough to escape with the win in the second half. St. Ambrose had their biggest lead of the game at 15 points off a Jenny Clark lay-up with 3:42 left in the first half. After trading baskets down the stretch, the Queen bees headed to the locker room up 48-34.

In the second half, the Queen Bees maintained their cushion for the first five minutes before Upper Iowa eventually made its run. Down 10 with 12:59 to play in the game, Andrea Downs hit a lay-up to cut the lead to eight. Upper Iowa continued to trim the Queen Bees advantage, and Ashley Martin hit a three-pointer with 8:40 to go to give Upper Iowa their first lead of the second half.

The Queen Bees quickly responded with a Mary burmesiter lay-up and the two teams battled the rest of the way down the stretch.

Down 1, with 3:30 to play, SAU went on a critical 7-0 run to give them a 75-69 advantage with two minutes to play. Shelly Charvat hit a lay-up, Dara Widdop knocked down two free throws and Whitney Rumbold nailed a big three pointer to put the game out of reach for good.

The Queen Bees hit 8-10 free throws in the final two minutes, including Casey Breitbach hitting on 5-6 attempts to seal the game.

Freshman Whitney Rumbold led the Bees with 19 points on 5-10 shooting, including hitting 5-8 three pointers. She also had six assists. Ali Dolphin knocked in 18 points on 8-19 shooting with six rebounds. Jenny Clark and Casey Breitbach combined for 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Now 9-1, 2-0 in the MCC, St. Ambrose will have a non-conference game at Luther College on December 8th.

Box Score