GREEN BAY, Wisc. - The UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team defeated St. Norbert College today by the score of 61-57. The team improves its record to 2-0 on two road wins. Eau Claire played ranked Luther on Saturday and won 62-53.

St. Norbert loses its first game of the season. They previously beat Edgewood and Concordia. The Blugolds are now 15-2 against the Green Knights. Last year the Blugolds had to rally to beat the Knights after being down 25-20 at half. The same can be said for this year's meeting. The Blugolds trailed at halftime 31-26.

The Blugolds got on the board early with a jumper from Michelle Burns (Sr.-Eau Claire, WI/North). Amanda Zenner (Sr.-Medford, WI) had two free throws and an assist to Heather Witt (Jr.-Kendall, WI/Royall)for a three. Heidi Arciszewski (Jr.-Thorp, WI), Burns, and Zenner all had layups to increase the Blugolds' lead to nine. St. Norbert came back though on Rachel Hermus' three jumpers. The Blugold defense then gave up four layups to make the game tied at 14. St. Norbert started to run away with more layups and two fouls shots to increase the lead to eight. The Blugolds chipped at the lead with foul shots and a layup from Burns. Witt and Brittanni Hakanson (Jr.-Wheeler, WI/Boyceville) also had layups to tie the game at 24. St. Norbert coach Connie Tilley took a timeout with 4:59 left in the half. Morgan Strasser had a three right out of the timeout and then a jumper to make the lead five. St. Norbert closed out the half with a layup by Emily Otzelberger, and Burns followed with a jumper to close the half at 31-26.

At the beginning of the second half, St. Norbert shot some free throws to increase their lead to eight. Arciszewski came back with a three to cut the lead to five. St. Norbert answered with a three, but some layups by Hakanson and Burns kept the game tight at 37-33. St. Norbert kept their lead and increased it to nine on a Hermus jumper at 11:19 left in the half. The Blugolds answered with a Zenner jumper and Rachel Mueggenborg (Sr.-West Salem, WI) three. St. Norbert then shot some free throws to bring their lead to six. Mueggenborg had another three, and Zenner and Witt added layups to tie the game at 52 with 2:57 left. Zenner had another jumper to put the Blugolds up. The Blugolds never relinquished the lead. Witt, Arciszewski, and Burns all had free throws to ice the game. The final score was 61-57.

The Blugolds shot 40% from the floor, and 29% from long distance. They also shot 77% from the free throw line. St. Norbert shot 44% from the floor, 21% from three point land, and 71% from the line. The Blugolds were outrebounded 34-30, but forced 18 turnovers. They also totaled 10 steals, but committed 14 turnovers.

Michelle Burns led all scorers with 19 points. She also tied Heather Witt and Brittanni Hakanson for the most rebounds with six. Burns also went 7-8 from the free throw line. Amanda Zenner had 10 points and six assists, the team high. Witt and Heidi Arciszewski had nine points. Witt also had three steals. Rachel Mueggenborg had two three-pointers to lead the team. Leading the Knights was Morgan Strasser with 16 points. Rachel Hermus added 13 points.

Next up for the Blugold women is the annual four-team Thanksgiving Showcase on Friday, November 23 and Saturday, November 24. The tournament starts at 6 p.m. on Friday with University of Chicago and Edgewood College. The Blugolds follow with North Park at 8 p.m. Saturday is the Consolation game at 6 p.m. and Championship at 8 p.m. All action will be at Zorn Arena.

Eau Claire-St. Norbert Box Score

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