Minnesota Duluth advances to first Division II Women's Basketball Championship

Mar. 22—Wednesday marked the last day of the NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Tournament in Downtown St. Joseph with the Final Four happening at the Civic Arena. The first game of the night featured two teams competing in their first Final Four in program history.

While Minnesota Duluth and Catawba made history, only one could move on to compete in the program's first championship. That lucky team would be Minnesota Duluth, as they made it 14 straight wins with a 70-59 victory.

"It's hard to try to wrap your head around it," Minnesota Duluth forward Brooke Olson said. "Even coming to the Elite Eight and into the Final Four, it was like, 'I don't think it's going to hit me until afterwards.'"

The Lady Indians of Catawba were able to pace themselves with a small lead for nearly the entire first quarter, even jumping out as far ahead as 14-7. The Bulldogs would eventually take over the lead with nearly a minute left in the quarter, holding onto a 19-18 lead.

Catawba would be able to regain the lead after tallying the second quarter's first four points, but basketball is known as the game of runs. The Bulldogs responded with two separate runs of five straight points to take a 36-30 lead at the 2:43 mark of the second quarter. Duluth led 38-33 at the break.

The third quarter was a defensive show, as both teams combined to shoot just 4-for-25 from the floor with only 16 points combined. The slow offensive production hurt Catawba more, who was held without a field goal for the first 10 minutes of the second half.

While down by nine points, the Lady Indians were able to cut the lead down 56-52, but the Bulldogs answered with the next five points and left the Civic Arena with a win.

Calvin Silvers can be reached at calvin.silvers@newspressnow.com.