The Dominican University women's basketball team pushed the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors to the limits on Saturday evening in a 67-49 loss for the Stars.  Dominican hung with the five-time Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) champions for three-plus quarters before the Warriors used a 12-2 run to pull away over the game's final five minutes.
 
Freshman Alisha Markley scored a team-high 16 points for the Stars in the losing effort while teammate Alexis Hoskins finished with 11 points in her second start of the season.
 
Trailing 33-24 at the break, the Stars outscored the Warriors 11-5 over the first 7:24 of the third quarter to pull within 38-35 on a pair of free throws by Rhetta Bates with 2:36 to play in the quarter.  Wisconsin Lutheran then used an 8-2 run to push the lead back to nine heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Sophomore Timiya Ray scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to pull the Stars within seven, 46-39, but that was as close as the Stars could get as the Warriors' Tierney Woodward hit a three on Wisconsin Lutheran's next possession to push the lead to double-digits.
 
"We gave up some big plays in the fourth quarter," said Gabby Johnson, the Stars' sixth-year head coach, "which you cannot afford to do against a team of that caliber. With that said, we proved to ourselves that we have begun to close the gap between Dominican and the very top of the conference.  In the past we've only been able to compete against those teams in 10-15 minute spurts. Tonight, we competed for 35 minutes."
 
The Stars shot 15-for-53 on the night, going 5-for-12 from three.  Coming off a career-best 36-point effort, sophomore Amari Stafford was limited to two points but contributed seven assists while holding the Warriors' Caitlin Knueppel to ten points on the defensive end of the floor, more than six points below Knueppel's season average.
 
"Amari was tasked with the job of chasing Knueppel for 40 minutes and she did what was asked of her tonight," said Johnson.

For the Warriors, Jen Dowden managed a game-high 22 points on 10-for-18 shooting to lead three in double-figures.  Coreana Carson added 18 on 7-for-12 shooting in 34 minutes.
 
The Stars, now 3-3 on the season and 0-2 in league play, return home on Tuesday night to host the Alverno College Inferno in NACC action. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.