UW-Platteville Rallies for 76-68 Win Over Luther

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville women's basketball team rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat host Luther College, 76-68 on Tuesday night at the Regents Center in Decorah, Iowa.

The Pioneers (2-2) overcame a 13-point halftime deficit and forced the host Norse into 12 second half turnovers. The Pioneers turned the 12 turnovers into 17 points in the win. For the game, UW-Platteville forced 24 turnovers and outscored Luther by a 31 to 11 margin in points off turnovers.

UW-Platteville junior Liz Lawinger sparked the second half comeback scoring 18 of her career-high 27 points in the final 20 minutes. The Pioneer floor general also had six rebounds - four offensive, four assists and three steals in 31 minutes of action. Lawinger scored the final nine points for the Pioneers in the win and led four players in double digits for UW-Platteville as Ashley Henry, Claire Poad and Rachel Cropp each scored 10 in the win.

Luther (1-2) was led by the double double performance of Taylor Johnson, who scored 20 points and a game-high 13 rebounds in the loss. The Norse' had two more in double figures as Rachel Stenhaug and Meagan Koepnick scored 16 and 11 points, respectively.

The game was a reunion for the two head coaches as both UW-Platteville head coach Megan Wilson and Luther head coach Amanda(Nechuta) Bailey played together on the UW-Stevens Point national championship team in 2002.

The Norse scored the final four points of the first half and the first two of the second half for a 15-point lead, 44-29. However, the Pioneers failed to concede and went on a 22 to 7 run to tie the game for the first time at 51 with 11:26 to play. In the run, Cropp made a pair of 3 pointers and Poad scored five points to spark UW-Platteville.

With the game tied, UW-Platteville took its first lead when freshman Alyssa Krajco made a pair of free throws with 10:32 remaining. The game would be tied on two more occasions before the Pioneers went on a game-deciding 8-0 run that featured four points each from Ashley Henry and Lawinger to put UW-Platteville in front for good. The Norse would only get as close as two in the closing minutes.

The Pioneers will next turn their attention and sights to face Winona State on Saturday, November 26th at 3 p.m. and host Coe College on Sunday, November 27th at 7 p.m. at Bo Ryan Court.