The UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball team pulled out a strong win against UW-Stevens Point on Saturday at Zorn Arena with a final score of 56-48.

Freshman Anna Graaskamp was the leading scorer, with a total of eight points in the first quarter, and had two free throw shots, along with a jump shot within 1:26 of the end to bring the score to a close 17-15.

It wasn’t until 3:16 left in the second quarter that senior Bree Meier shot a three pointer that brought the Blugolds ahead 20-18. After this, Graaskamp scored five more points to end the first half 25-20.

With 6:05 left in the third, senior Arien Brennan scored a layup with a foul on Stevens Point. She then scored one free throw shot to bring the Blugolds’ lead up by 6 points. Meier then shot a three that brought the end of the quarter with a great lead of 37-28.

Maddie Dunathan, sophomore, was then fouled while trying to score, but made two points in free throws, with Senior Alleah Voight also scoring one point to bring the game to a close with Eau Claire winning with an 8-point lead, 56-48.

At the end of the game, the lead scorer was Meier with 17 total points. Brennan had a total of 15 rebounds. The teams overall scored 19 of 41 field goals, with a percentage of 46.3%, almost half of the overall shots.

Anna Graaskamp, who has been out on injury for the past four games, was a large contributor of the night’s game. Eau Claire head coach, Tonja Englund said Graaskamp’s return to the team was a “highlight” of the game.

“To have our go-to player back was significant,” Englund said. “We were just in a better flow tonight because we had her back.”

The defense, she said, was better tonight than in previous games.

“I think we’re trending up,” Englund said. “I think that my younger players also have a lot of experience. But I also think defensively we’re starting to find our identity. We’re switching some things up and we played defense tonight we haven’t played a lot this year. So we’re doing a great job with it.”

Englund said the team’s win was impressive considering Stevens Point being a tough competitor in the conference.

“Stevens Point is in the upper conference right now, a tough team,” Englund said. “And really has a mostly junior and senior team. So for my team that is playing a lot of freshman and sophomores, this is a significant win for us.”

The Blugolds will continue their season with an away game on Feb. 8 against UW-Platteville.