Spartans Upset #6 Simpson
Feb 13, 2013 | J.Crane
INDIANOLA, IOWA – The University of Dubuque Women's Basketball team pulled off the biggest win in the programs history in record setting fashion on Wednesday night. The Spartans 72-56 road victory over #6 Simpson College (22-2, 12-1) also set a school a school for wins in a season. UD held the Storm to a season low 21.7% shooting from the field. Dubuque is now 17-7 overall and 7-6 in the Iowa Conference. The Spartans are a game out of second place and a first round bye in the IIAC Tournament.
“I am very proud of the teams focus and effort tonight. Simpson is a very good team and had won 22 regular season home games in a row,” said Head Coach Mark Noll. “You want to have these kinds of wins late in the season, I could not be more proud of this team.”
The Spartans took charge of the game with a 17-3 run to start the second half after leading 33-23 at the half. UD used a balanced scoring attack during the run as Mollie Whiting (Woodstock, Ill./Woodstock), Meggie Schmidt (Edgerton, Wis./Edgerton), Alexis Lozano-Dobbs (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk), Jennifer Fischer (Deerfield, Wis./Deerfield), Stephany Remakel (Dubuque, Iowa/Hempstead), and Ashley Barwick (Appleton, Wis./Xavier) all scored to give Dubuque its largest lead of the night at 24 points. The Spartans made a season high 29 free throws in the contest while shooting 82.9% from the line.
Whiting led UD with 32 points while setting a new school record for free throws made in a game with 16. The senior guard also pulled down 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Whiting’s big game pushed her scoring average to 22.6 points per game and into fifth place in Division III. She extended her steak of 20+ point games to 14 games and has scored 15 or more points in 18 straight contests.
Playing with four guards, the Spartans forced the tempo and recorded 12 steals and nine blocked shots in the contest. Dubuque native Remakel blocked six shots in the game while also pulling down 11 rebounds. Remakel now has 52 blocked shots on the year, good for the third highest single season total in UD history.
Schmidt had an outstanding game on the defensive side of the court as well with five steals. She also had eight points, four assists, three rebounds, and a block in her second start of the year. Fischer and Kayla Springer (Altoona, Wis./Altoona) each had two steals.
The Spartan bench outscored the Storm reserves 19-11 with Lozano-Dobbs leading the way with 10 points on 3-5 shooting from the floor and 4-4 from the free throw line. Seniors Kystral Pritchett (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) and Jena Darwin (Menomonie, Wis./Menomonie Senior) each scored four points off the bench.
The Spartans last win against Simpson came on February 7, 2004 and snaps a 19 game losing streak to the Storm.
UP NEXT: The Spartans will finish up the regular season on Saturday, February 16th vs Loras College (17-7, 7-6) at 2:00 pm. Between games, seniors Barwick, Darwin, Pritchett, and Whiting will be honored. The seniors will go down as having the most wins in school history over a four year period. In their last meeting, UD lost 56-62 at Loras on January 23nd in a game televised live on KCRG 9.2.
