Lopers Win First Road Game of Season, 75-67

Kearney, Neb. – Junior Vanessa Leeper and sophomore Kelsey Lane each scored 17 points to lead the Nebraska-Kearney women’s basketball team to a 75-67 win at Colorado School of Mines Friday night in Golden, Colo.

The Lopers (4-5, 2-3 RMAC) win its first road game of the year while the Orediggers fall to 4-5 (0-4 RMAC).

Recently, no team has given UNK has much trouble in the RMAC as Mines as the ‘Diggers had won seven of the last 10 against the Lopers. This time, Kearney committed just 16 turnovers out rebounded a bigger Mines team 43-34 to claim the win.

Leading for the last 32 minutes of the game, UNK saw Leeper (Colorado Springs, Colo.) go 6 of 12 from the field with Lane (Omaha Burke) coming off the bench to make 6 of 9 shots.

The Lopers held only a 53-52 lead after Courtney Gallo made a three with 7:07 remaining in the game. After a Lane bucket, freshman point guard Nicole Arp (Kearney) converted a layup to give Kearney a five-point lead. Soon after, senior post Megan Becker (Southern Valley H.S.) pushed the lead to four, 61-57, at the 3:27 mark to help UNK hold a lead of at least four points down the stretch.

Making 22 of 34 free throws (64.7 pct.) on the night, UNK saw Becker supply 14 points on 7 of 16 shooting. Besides providing six points, Arp supplied five assitss and four steals.

For Mines, senior post Brecca Gaffney, averaging a double double on the year, tallied a game-high 28 points on 10 of 20 shooting. She also pulled down eight rebounds and had three assists and a block. Also, reserve Kait Soehner scored 14 points and had three assists.

UNK is at Colorado Christian Saturday night.