The Blugolds lost their first game of the season against the University of Minnesota-Morris in  a close game last Saturday. The final score of the game was 76-78.

In the first quarter, Minn-Morris and the Blugolds were matched evenly. Kelsey Bakken, a third-year, scored 4 points and had two rebounds, which helped the Blugolds to earn 20 points. The first quarter ended in a 20-20 point tie.

During the second quarter, Bakken scored 15 points and had four rebounds. The Blugolds were able to take the lead by the end of the quarter with a final score of 48-36. Going into halftime, the Blugolds were up by 12 points.

“We have the ability to score a lot of points,” Head Coach Tonja Englund said. “We’ve started to play four guards together, and gone with a smaller line up, which also has been really good for us offensively.”

The Blugolds lost momentum in the third quarter, allowing Minn-Morris to take the advantage and get 18 points on the scoreboard. However, Bakken held strong and had five rebounds. Hallee Hoeppner, a third-year, scored 4 points and recorded a rebound. The score going into the fourth quarter was 61-54.

The fourth quarter broke the Blugolds winning streak as the team allowed Minn-Morris to score 24 points. The Blugolds rallied and put up 15 points, but were 2 points too short of winning the game. The final score of the game was 76-78, a Blugold loss.

“We have to be much better on the defensive side,” Bakken said. “We can’t give up that many points. We also need to shoot much better from the free throw line so those have been things that Coach has really talked about this week.”

Bakken had a total of 13 rebounds in the game and Hoeppner scored 25 points for the Blugolds.

The women’s basketball team will face Bethel University at 7 p.m. on Thursday in Zorn Arena.  

“Bethel beat Morris earlier this year by 10 points, so Thursday will be a tough game and a good matchup for us,” Bakken said.

Erskine can be reached at [email protected].