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Contact: Louis Groce, Graduate Assistant to the Sports Information Director, 630-637-5568

Box Score

(Dec. 28, 2013) – Saint Mary's University of Minnesota led for all 40 minutes on Saturday and defeated the North Central College women's basketball team 99-81 at Gregory Arena in North Central's first home game in nearly a month. 

In the first half, North Central (6-4) shot over 40% from the field, but were plagued by 20 turnovers.  The home team had the game within single digits for much of the first half until Courtney Euerle gave Saint Mary's (6-1) a 31-21 advantage with 5:29 left.  Saint Mary's lead ballooned to 16 points with 3:30 left in the half on a bucket by Shelby Auseth, but North Central cut the lead to 11 on a layup by DeJa Moore to end the half. 

Larynn Shumaker scored on the first possession of the second half to cut the lead to nine, but that was close as North Central would come the rest of the way.  Saint Mary's shot over 53% in the second half and built a 23 point lead with just over eight minutes to play.  North Central whittled it to 13 on two separate occasions, but could come no closer. 

Maryssa Cladis led four players in double figures with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting.  Moore, Marion Boeck, and Uzuri Williams also reached double digits in the scoring column.  Anita Sterling pulled down a career-high nine rebounds to go with seven points. 

Auseth poured in a game-high 28 points and added seven rebounds to lead Saint Mary's.  Euerle added 15 points and a team-high nine boards, while Sara Schoenthaler chipped in 14 for the visitors. 

North Central hits the hardwood again on Monday when they host Aurora University at 7:00 p.m.