RIVER FOREST, Ill. - The women's basketball team evened its Northern Athletics Conference record with a important road win over the Dominican University Stars on Wednesday night. The win also snapped a 4-game losing streak for the Regents in the head-to-head series. Rockford is now 1-1 in the NAC.
The game's first half momentum swung back and forth throughout the half, as the entire half was played within a ten point range and saw eight lead changes and five ties. Dominican came out of the gates strong establishing its largest lead of the afternoon at the 11:34 mark leading 16-11. The Regents answered behind the hot hand of junior Erin Ryczek (South Beloit, Ill./Hononegah). Ryczek scored 9 of her 15 points in the first half to help put the team up 5 with 4:13 remaining before halftime. However, the Regents had the lead chopped to just a single point leading 32-31 at the intermission.
The second half was all Rockford as the ladies led the entire 20 minutes and were up by as many as 12 points. Rockford used a balanced attack with seven of the nine players scoring during the second half. Juniors Sherrell Woods (Rockford, Ill./East) and Jessica Bjerning (Wauconda, Ill./Mundelein) each scored 6 points in the half and shot at least 50 percent from the floor to help Rockford cruise to a 63-51 win.
The Regents played their most complete game of the season on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court. The ladies shot a season best 41.1% from the floor and tied for a season-high with 11 assists. Defensively Rockford held Dominican to just 28.6% shooting and forced 18 turnovers while committing a season-low 8 turnovers themselves.
The ladies had four players score in double-figures on Wednesday with a fifth on the cusp of reaching double-digits. Erin Ryczek led the team with season-high 15 points off the bench. The junior also chipped in a team-best 8 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal. Jessica Bjerning scored 10 points in her first start of the 2012-13 season. Bjerning also grabbed 4 rebounds, had 2 assists and 1 steal. Senior Nicole Lawler (Pearl City, Ill./Pearl City) scored 10 points, got 6 rebounds and had 1 assist. It was the third time in five games this season that Lawler has scored at least 10 points. Junior Lindsay Lengjak (Roscoe, Ill./Hononegah) also scored 10 points and tied for the team-high with 4 steals. Sherrell Woods narrowly missed recording back-to-back 10 point games as she finished with 8 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
The women's basketball team will return to the court on Saturday, December 1 when they host the Alverno College Inferno for a Northern Athletics Conference matchup. Tip-off will be at 7:00 p.m. in the Seaver Center.
