Contact: Emily Adlfinger, Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7970

LINCOLN, Neb. (Feb. 6, 2021) – The Loras College women's basketball team asserted its dominance early and never let up against Nebraska Wesleyan University (0-4, 0-4 A-R-C) on Saturday, cruising to a 70-43 win after limiting the Prairie Wolves to two quarters of single-digits points to secure their first American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) victory of the season.

From the start, it was all about the Duhawks as a pair of free throws by Cierra Bachmann and a layup by Ashley Funk made the lead 4-0. Jaime Ryan continued the streak with a layup before Lydia Breunig and Bachmann drained back-to-back three-pointers to extend the lead 15-3. NWU only scored seven points in the opening quarter and Loras brought the same energy into the second quarter, growing the 20-7 lead to 23-7 score after a three-pointer by Megan Murray. The threes kept coming as Loras tallied 15 of their 17 points from beyond the arc, holding a commanding 37-14 lead going into the locker room.

A three-pointer from Bachmann opened the second half and helped spark an 11-point run with more three-pointers from Sydney Schuler and Sami Martin to give Loras a 51-16 lead. The Prairie Wolves stopped the run for a moment but Loras continued to rack up the points, closing out the quarter with a 62-27 lead going into the final ten minutes of play.

Murray and Breunig kept the three-pointers coming to start the fourth quarter, giving Loras its largest lead of the contest, 68-27. The Prairie Wolves found some momentum to finish out the game with an 11-point run, but the Duhawks had built too much of a lead to overcome and came away with the win.

Loras saw nearly all its players shine in the road win with Bachmann tallying 15 points and shooting a perfect 4-4 from the line and Breunig had a team-high four assists. Abby Ragusa had a career-best nine points and Murray had a season-best eight. Bachmann, Murray, and Alli Udelhofen had three steals each and Martin led the team with seven rebounds. As a team, the Duhawks were two threes short of the team record with 17 and continued to pressure the Prairie Wolves defensively, scoring 33 points off turnovers.

Loras returns home to Lillis Court on Monday, Feb. 8, hosting Buena Vista University for a rescheduled matchup. Tip-off is set for 4:30 P.M.