Des Moines, Kan. – It was a tough 40 minutes for McPherson College women's basketball as they lost 73-50 to Dakota Wesleyan University in their second game of the AIB-College of Business Classic.
The lone lead for the Bulldogs came after they scored the first basket of the night just over a minute in. McPherson kept things tight for the next ten minutes but the Trojans bumped their lead to double-digits for good with less than five to play in the half. Mac continued to stay close and headed into halftime down 30-21 after a last-second bucket. The 'Dogs were just 8-of-28 from the field and 1-of-2 from the charity stripe while SWU scored on 12-of-32 shots and made both of their free throws.
In the second half, MC pulled within six just a few minutes in and kept the deficit in single-digits for the first 10. Dakota Wesleyan went on a 12-0 run to push their lead to 19 by the seven-minute mark. The DWU lead hovered around 20 for the remainder of the contest and as the buzzer sounded, McPherson was left on the wrong side of a 73-50 score line. 10-of-26 field goals including 6-of-16 from beyond the arc were made by Mac; the Trojans were 16-of-32 in the final 20 minutes.
MC was 18-of-54 from the floor for the night and connected on 10-of-28 from distance (35.7%); the team didn't make it to the stripe all that often but were only 50% for the game, making 4-of-8. Mac tallied just 32 rebounds as Dakota Wesleyan did a good job hitting their shots in the second half. They had 21 turnovers, 13 assists, and seven steals.
Bailey Brown and Sunny Smart each scored 13 for the Bulldogs. Brown was 5-of-9 including a pair of three pointers and made 1-of-2 free throws; she had just two rebounds, her lowest total of the year. Smart converted on 4-of-11 three balls and 1-of-2 from the stripe.
McPherson has an exhibition contest on Wednesday the 19th at Fort Hays State University; tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m. (CT)
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McPherson College is a Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference member school and a part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
