Story by: Zach Koenig
Morris, MN—On a night of pre-game honors, the University of Minnesota-Morris women’s basketball team defeated St. Scholastica 75-59 on Friday.
Alaina Benson (Sr. Clinton, MN) was honored before the game for becoming the 17th Cougar in history to reach the 1,000th point mark for her career. Benson was presented a game ball by Tim Grove.
Leading the scoring for the Cougars was Tynell Kocer (Jr. Pierre, SD) with 16 points, while Benson added 15 points of her own. Coresa Leighty (Jr. New Ulm, MN) also scored 15 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double at UMM.
Jamie Rainey (Jr. Maple Grove, MN) had seven points, seven rebounds, eight assists four blocks and four steals. Kristie Swenstad (So. Osakis, MN) had five.
Both teams traded the lead in the early portion of the first half, with UMM going up 15-9 on a layup from Kocer.
St. Scholastica tied the score at 23-23 with 5:40 remaining, but a jumper from Benson put Minnesota-Morris on top (32-28) quickly after.
The visitors tied the score again (32-32) with just 35 seconds in the half, but a jump-shot from Kocer gave the Cougars a slim 34-32 halftime lead.
Benson (nine points) led the Cougars in first-half scoring, while Leighty, Swenstad, and Marissa Maynard (Sr. Blaine, MN) had three rebounds apiece.
The Cougars slowly increased their lead in the second half. A three-pointer from Swenstad put them up 53-40 with 11:02 remaining.
Despite seeing the visitors pull to within six points (57-51) at the 8:06 mark, the Cougars rattled off eight consecutive points to go up 65-51.
A layup from Kocer ended the scoring at 75-59.
Leighty (13 points) and Kocer (10) led Minnesota-Morris’s second-half scoring. Leighty also had seven rebounds in the half, while Rainey had six of her own.
UMM shot at a 44.4% (28-63) clip from the floor and outscored St. Scholastica 30-10 in the paint and 20-10 off the bench.
The win raised the Cougars’ UMAC record to 8-4 in the UMAC and 14-9 overall.
Alaina benson was presented a game ball prior to the game for becoming the 17th player in Cougar women's basketball history to reach the 1,000 point mark in her career. Click
here for a look at head coch Tim Grove making the presentation.
 |  |
| Minnesota-Morris | 34 | 41 | 0 | 75 |
| St. Scholastica | 32 | 27 | 0 | 59 |
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