DUBUQUE, Iowa – No. 4 seeded Benedictine Women's Basketball handed top-seeded and No. 5-ranked Clarke University their second loss of the season on Saturday in the Semifinals of the Heart Women's Basketball Championship.
The Ravens, who also handed the Pride their only regular-season loss of the year back on Jan. 20 in Dubuque, never trailed on Saturday playing through an early tie and two fourth-quarter ties en route to a 64-61 win.
Alleigh Kramer hit a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left in the game. Those free throws were followed by a possession from the Pride that ended in an offensive foul, giving the Ravens the ball back with 2 seconds remaining in the game. Another foul with less than a second remaining sent Jennifer Jacobs to the line where she he 1 of 2 to seal the 3-point win.
Benedictine held Clarke to 9 points in the opening quarter, which included a scoreless drought over the final 2:32 of the quarter as they built an 11-point lead on a pair of Kramer free throws with 4 seconds left in the quarter.
Riley Rottinghaus opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer to put the Ravens up 14. A layup from Jennifer Jacobs near the midpoint of the quarter pushed Benedictine to their largest lead of the game at 16 points, 32-16. By halftime, the Ravens lead stood at 11 after Nicole Storck hit the final shot of the quarter with 19 seconds left to send Benedictine into the break up 39-28.
The halftime break seemed to ignite the Pride, as they came out clicking on offense. They held the Ravens scoreless from the field through nearly 6 minutes while opening the third quarter outscoring the Ravens 10-0 to close within 2 points. A 3-pointer from Josie Weishaar pushed Benedictine back up by 5 and then the combination of Kramer, Lauryn Dubbert, and Aaliyah Raines scored 6 straight to put the Ravens back up by 8 points.
The Pride opened the fourth quarter with the first 5 points of the quarter to tie the game at 49 which was answered by a layup from Jacobs. Another jumper for Clarke tied it at 51 inside the first 3 minutes of the quarter.
Layups from Kyra Misuraca and Jacobs pushed Benedictine back up by 5 points before the two teams started to trade baskets. Back-to-back baskets from Raines not only kept the Ravens in the lead, but her second basket with just over 2 minutes remaining pushed Raines over the 1,000-point scoring mark for her career at Benedictine.
Clarke was only able to score on three free throws for their final points of the game which allowed Benedictine to maintain their lead.
Jacobs led the Ravens with 15 points, followed by Raines with 10. Kramer and Weishaar finished with 9 points each to round out the top scorers for the Ravens.
Benedictine held Heart Player of the Year Nicole McDermott to 6 points on 2 of 6 shooting as the Pride leaned on Taylor Haase, who scored a game-high 27 points.
The Ravens return to the Heart Championship Game for the first time since 2017 as they will remain on the road Tuesday, March 5, traveling to Des Moines to take on No. 2 seed and NAIA No. 20 Grand View University. The winner of the Championship Game earns the first automatic berth from the Heart into the NAIA National Tournament as the Pride, with the loss to the Ravens, earn the second automatic berth as the Heart regular season champion.
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