BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Caletria Curtis and Ryleigh McCartney each scored 17 points to lead the Bellevue University women's basketball team to a 70-64 win over Waldorf University Saturday afternoon in North Star Athletic Association action at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.
With the win, the Bruins improved to 16-11 on the season and 9-4 in the NSAA. Waldorf fell to 5-17 overall and 2-10 in league play.
Curtis narrowly missed a double-double after grabbing a game-high nine rebounds while adding four assists and two steals. McCartney nailed five 3-pointers in the win. Elexis Martinez was the third Bruin in double figures, finishing with 13 points along with six rebounds. Shayla Dean tied a season-high with seven assists to go along with four rebounds.
Taylor Fricke led the Warriors with 15 points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists. Samantha Birkes collected 14 points, four assists, and three rebounds.
McCartney and Curtis combined for the first 13 Bruin points of the game and BU led 18-16 after the first quarter despite being outshot 50 to 46.2 percent. Fricke led the Warriors in the opening 10 minutes with five points and three rebounds.
After a layup by Birkes tied the game at 18-18 early in the second quarter, the Bruins went on a 10-2 run over the next six minutes, capped by a layup from Curtis to take a 28-20 lead with 3:21 left before halftime. The Warriors responded with a 7-2 run to close the half, cutting the deficit to three points at 30-27 at the intermission.
Waldorf cooled off in the second, shooting just 26.3 percent from the field, while the BU hit 36.4 percent of its shots in the second.
Curtis led the Bruins in the first half with 11 points and three boards. McCartney added nine points on three 3-pointers. Fricke paced WU with eight points and five rebounds in the first half.
A 3-pointer by Fricke tied the game at 30-30 in the first minute of the third quarter. Bellevue countered with a 13-2 run to pull ahead 43-32 midway through the frame before WU finished the third on a 12-7 spurt to slice the BU lead to 50-44 heading into the final quarter.
A pair of 3-pointers by Taylor Cormier highlighted an 11-2 BU run as the Bruins pushed the margin to 13 points at 61-48 with 7:24 remaining in the contest. The Warriors responded with seven-consecutive points to cut the deficit to six points at 61-55 at the 5:55 mark.
The Warriors got as close as five points (65-60) following a layup by Fricke with 2:17 remaining before the Bruins settled for the 70-64 victory.
Bellevue has now won eight out of its last nine games.
The Bruins will travel to Jamestown, N.D. on Friday, Feb. 9 for a 5:30 p.m. contest at league-leader and nationally sixth-ranked University of Jamestown.
