Forming a game plan to stop one or two of a team’s best scorers is a normal routine for a head coach. But what do you do when all five opposing starters, plus a couple bench players, can put points on the board?
That’s the situation that BR-98 Minn. Duluth faced when the team took on BR-7 Wayne State in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference game recently.
Seven Wayne State athletes recorded double-digit point totals in a 91-53 victory over the Bulldogs.
Millie Niggeling led the Wildcats’ high octane offensive strike by scoring 13 points while fellow starters Ashton Yossi, Sadie Murren and Katie Hoskins added 11 apiece and Maggie Schulte chipped in with 10.
If that wasn’t enough for Duluth to handle, two freshmen came off the bench to light up the stat sheet.
Alex Nelson had a career-high 11 points and Paige Ballinger added 10. Ballinger, a backup center, also recorded a career-high 14 rebounds. This isn’t the first time that the Wildcats saw big time performances from multiple people on the roster this season, either.
In a game against BR-240 Bemidji State, five players picked up double-digit totals. Niggeling scored 22 points while Jordan Spencer had 16, Ballinger had 14 and Schulte and Yossi added 10 apiece in the 99-52 win.
Then there was the 97-50 drubbing of Peru State. In that game Niggeling had 17 points as Yossi added 15, Schulte had 14 and Ballinger chipped in with 14.
In the Wildcats’ biggest blowout of the season, five players once again shined with huge totals. In a game in which Wayne State crushed York College 110-33, Spencer had 22 points, Kacie O’Connor had 14, Haley Moore had 12, Murren dropped 11 and Ballinger added 10.
Make no mistake about it, these totals are not a fluke. Future opposing coaches will undoubtedly find it hard to sleep when preparing for a game against Wayne State this season.
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