MILWAUKEE -- A final game-tying 3-pointer was off the mark as Alverno College lost the championship game of the 2014 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, 60-57, to host and top-seeded Wisconsin Lutheran College this afternoon inside the Recreation Complex.
The third-seeded Inferno's season and seven-game win streak came to an end, but the team had the winningest season in school history with a 19-9 record, and the program's first postseason victories earned a runner-up finish in the NACC tournament.
The Warriors (24-3) won their fourth-consecutive tournament title and 23rd-straight game, their last loss coming at Alverno, 73-70, on Nov. 30.
A Katie Bartlett jumper early in the game gave Alverno its largest lead of the game, 12-4, and the Inferno led for a majority of the opening half. However, the Inferno's offense went stagnant and the Warriors went ahead 23-22 with 3 minutes to play in the period taking a three-point cushion into the halftime intermission.
Mollie Mikyska scored the first two baskets of the second half as the Inferno regained the lead, 29-28. After the teams traded baskets, Devon Gorman scored a game-tying free throw with 12:04 remaining, but that would be the final draw of the afternoon, as the Warriors began to pull away.
Wisconsin Lutheran went up by nine points with just under 5 minutes remaining, and led by eight with 45 seconds left, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Gorman and Tessa Mersberger over a 9-second span cut the spread to just two points with 27 ticks to go.
After an Alverno foul, the Warriors made one of two free throws and gave the Inferno a final possession to tie the game. Mersberger's final 3-point shot was off the mark and the Warriors secured the rebound and the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.
Gorman led the Inferno with 14 points, while Jamie Hoernke had 11, Ashley Berry nine, while Mikyska and Bartlett chipped in eight apiece.
Mikyska snagged a team-best 12 rebounds, while Kristen Speerschneider tallied a team-high four assists in her 104th career game--an Alverno record for games played.
The Warriors were led by Kristen Schulz' 18 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocked shots, while Melanie Laete added 16 for WLC.
Alverno had just nine turnovers and forced 15, but came up short 50-41 on the glass, and made just 33 percent from the field, while the Warriors made nearly 40 percent of their shot attempts.
Neither team fared well from the free-throw line, as both teams shot an identical 12-of-22 from the stripe.