After suffering through five consecutive losses, the UW-Superior women's basketball team hoped Monday afternoon's contest with Northland College would yield a better result.
And a better result is exactly what the Yellowjackets got, rallying from a five-point halftime deficit to trip up the LumberJills 66-56 at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.
With the win, the Yellowjackets improved to 4-5 for the season heading into the holiday. Northland fell to 2-3 with the loss.
The two teams would trade leads through the opening five minutes of the first half before UW-Superior went on a 10-0 run to turn a 6-4 deficit into a 14-6 lead with 11:52 remaining in the half after scores from junior Hailey Hart (Osseo, Wis.), sophomore Connie Urmanski (Edgar, Minn.), junior Bri Davis (Hermantown, Minn.) and four points from senior Kelsey Thingvold (Crystal, Minn.).
Northland would steadily rally for the rest of the half, outscoring the Yellowjackets 19-5 over the final 6:56 of the frame to overcome a 23-14 UW-Superior lead to take a 33-28 advantage into halftime.
The LumberJills would connect on four three-pointers during the spurt, getting one each from Kristin Zimmer, Maria Mackey, Sara Hoge and Lulu Seelye on the way to knocking down seven triples in the opening 20 minutes.
UW-Superior would turn up the defense after halftime however, going on a 9-0 spurt between 18:36 and 15:07 to overtake Northland at 37-36 following two baskets from Davis, a score from Hart and a long three from sophomore Kailee McDonald (Cambridge, Minn.).
The two sides would trade the advantage for most of the next 11 minutes, culminating in Northland taking a 53-50 lead following a three-pointer by Sam Stanfield with 4:16 left on the clock.
From there, the Yellowjackets would clamp down on defense however, holding the LumberJills to just two points in the final 4:16 while going on a 15-2 burst to pull away and seal the victory.
Davis and Hart again played key roles in the run as Davis scored four points while Hart connected on 4-of-6 free throws during the spurt. Thingvold added two free throws for the Yellowjackets and McDonald chipped in with five points as well, helping give UW-Superior a 65-53 advantage before Mackey closed the scoring on a driving layup in the final 10 seconds.
Hart led the way for UW-Superior, finishing with 16 points while Davis added 14 points and 12 rebounds. Thingvold added 12 points and six rebounds for the Yellowjackets, who held an impressive 38-24 edge in rebounds.
Northland was led by Seelye with 16 points while Mackey added 11. The LumberJills connected on 12-of-23 three-pointers for the game.