St. Bonifacius, Minn. – After an exhibition win on Thursday, the Crown women's basketball team hosted Alverno on Friday night in their regular-season opener, defeating the Inferno 80-59.  The Polars earned first-year head coach Bridge Tusler his first official collegiate coaching victory with the win.

The visitors led 15-13 after the first quarter, but Crown put together three straight positive quarters to pull away.  The fourth quarter was especially good to the Polars as the home team outscored their opponent 28-14.

Amy Martius led all scorers with 21 points on 8-13 shooting, including a 3-5 mark from three point range.  She also added a team-high seven rebounds in 32 minutes of action. 

Madi Hecox and McKenzie Latzke also hit double-figures for the Polars, scoring 17 and 14 points respectively.

Hecox had a team-high nine assists, just one off the single-game record as Crown recorded 21 assists for the game.