First-Ranked CUNE Women Fend Off Defenders

Freshman Guard Mackenzie Kopeke races with the basketball to the other side of the court against Dordt College Defenders. Photo by Laura VonKampen.

By Morgan Consier

Concordia’s women’s basketball team held off the Dordt College (Iowa) Defenders on Wednesday night in a game that had the crowd on the edge of their seats for a majority of the second half. The game ended with a score of 90-88.

Senior Quinn Wragge jumps for a basket. Photo by Laura VonKampen.

Starters for the game were junior guard Grace Barry (#55), sophomore guard Taylor Cockerill (#5), junior guard Riley Sibbel (#4), senior forward Quinn Wragge (#30) and junior forward Philomena Lammers (#42).

Concordia came out of the gate with a 7-2 lead, only to have that lead snatched away by Dordt, who led 30-21 at the end of the first quarter.

While Dordt continued to hold Concordia back throughout the remainder of the first half, the Bulldogs were able to go on a 14-1 run to tie the game 46-46 at the half, with Barry alone contributing five of those points.

Despite Dordt’s attempts to regain the lead, Concordia stayed ahead and finished the third quarter with a five-point lead of 73-68.

The fourth quarter of the game remained tense as Concordia battled it out to make up for losing to Dordt earlier in the season.

Dordt nearly tied the game with less than four minutes remaining, but the Bulldogs held them off, and the score remained stationary for most of the rest of the game until a few shots by the Bulldogs left the score at 90-87 with just 6.5 seconds left in the game.

Dordt managed to get one more point in during those last couple seconds, but not enough to move past Concordia, who won the game 90-88 and increased their season record for 23-2 with a record of 15-2 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC).

Bulldog women’s basketball cheer for their teammates in a successful game against Dordt Defenders. Photo by Laura VonKampen.

Concordia had five athletes with double digits points for the game, including Lammers with 20 points, Cockerill with 17 points, Barry with 15 points, Wragge with 10 points, and freshman guard Mackenzie Koepke (#21) with 10 points.

The Bulldogs will defend their first-place ranking on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 2 p.m. against the Northwestern College Raiders in Orange City, Iowa.