ORANGE CITY, Iowa. – The No. 4-seed Northwestern College Raiders (24-7, 15-7 GPAC) are set to face the No. 6-ranked and No. 1-seed Morningside University Mustangs (26-4, 20-2 GPAC) in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) tournament semifinal round on Saturday, February 26.
The Raiders and the Mustangs split their two regular season meetings, with the home squad taking care of business in each of their wins.
The first matchup of the season occurred at the Bultman Center in Orange City, Iowa and the Raiders took down then No. 10 Morningside 78-77. The matchup proved to be a typical GPAC battle with the final blow coming from Devyn Kemble after she nailed a deep corner three on a Taylor VanderVelde assist, to put the Raiders up four with seven seconds to play. The Raiders were led in scoring (27) and rebounding (8) by Molly Schany. Sophia Peppers of Morningside had an impressive performance finishing with 26 points, including seven made threes.
The second meeting of the season saw the Mustangs defend their home court coming away with an 81-63 win. Morningside held a narrow six-point lead at the half and used a run in the third quarter to stretch their lead to 13. The fourth quarter saw Morningside shoot 60 percent from the field and nail four three-pointers to stretch their lead and not allow a Raider comeback. Emilee Danner led the Raiders in points with 11, she was joined by Hannah Nerem (10) in the double-digit category for Northwestern. Peppers continued to be a thorn in the side of the Raiders dropping 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Sierra Mitchell leads the Mustangs in the points per game category with just over 17 a contest, including averaging almost three made three-pointers per game. Mitchell leads all of women’s college basketball history (all NCAA divisions and NAIA) in made career 3-pointeres. Peppers averages 14.8 per game along with just over six boards. Chloe Lofstrom and Taylor Rodenburgh round out the double-digit scorers for the Mustangs with 12.9 and 11.7, respectively. The Mustangs are narrowly second in the conference to the Raiders in team field goal percentage (45.9).
Tip-off from the Rosen Verdoorn Sports Center-Allee Gymnasium in Sioux City, Iowa is set for 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26.
