BOX SCORE

MILWAUKEE, Wis. – The Benedictine University women's basketball team battled the No. 1 seed Wisconsin Lutheran College to the end with five ties and 10 lead changes but the effort fell short as the Warriors defeated the Eagles 78-70 in the semifinals of the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament.

Benedictine (16-10) took a first half lead with back to back layups from Colleen Forkin. Wisconsin Lutheran (24-3) caught fire to storm back and take a seven-point lead with under six minutes remaining. Buckets from Jenn Bren and Jillian Lipman found BenU within three to end the half, 39-36.

The Warriors shot 50 percent in the first half on 16-32 shooting while the Eagles were 14-32 (43.8 percent).

Forkin and Lidia Arias kicked off the second half with layups to spark a 6-0 Benedictine run to regain the lead. The two teams would trade baskets for the next five minutes until WLC's Brittany Bahr hit a three-pointer to ignite a 7-0 run for the Crusaders.

Tracey Walsh ended the WLC run with a jumper followed by a basket from Bren to come within four with 1:26 left on the clock. With time winding down, the Eagles were forced to foul and despite a three from Karyn Conerty with 11 seconds remaining, the Warriors would go on to win 78-70 and advance to the NAC Championship game.

Four players scored in double-figures for BenU including a team-high 14 points from Walsh. Lipman scored 12 points while Arias had 10 points, four rebounds and two steals. Bren grabbed seven rebounds and had 10 points and Forkin had a team-high four assists with seven rebounds and nine points.

As a team, Benedictine was 28-66 from the field (42.4 percent) and 7-21 from three-point land (33.3 percent). The Eagles were out-rebounded 40-32 but forced 15 WLC turnovers on 10 steals.

Erika Laek had a game high 23 points and 13 rebounds for Wisconsin Lutheran.

Wisconsin Lutheran advances to the NAC championship game on Saturday night when they will host the No. 3 seed, Concordia-Wisconsin.