St. Bonifacius, Minn. - The Polars Women's Basketball team faced off with the Minnesota Morris Cougars on Saturday finishing on top by a score of 72-70.

The first 6 minutes were once again troublesome for the Polars, going down 11-0 before putting their first points of the game on the board. Crown got right back into it going on a 15-7 run closing out the first quarter. The second quarter's offensive effort saw a couple of threes from McKenzie Latzke and a few buckets from a number of different Polars. Crown cut the Morris lead to just four with a minute and a half to go in the first half but a few points from the Cougars late in the quarter put Crown down by 7, 37-30 at the break.

Crown found some life in the third quarter following a few early buckets from Madi Hecox, Isabelle Sager, and Latzke. The spark early in the third helped Crown put together arguably the best third quarter of the season scoring 23 points. The end of the third found Crown on top 53-45. The fourth quarter came down to the wire with Morris slowly inching their way back. With just three minutes to go Hecox went 6-6 from the free throw line.

With just 32 seconds to go it was all tied up at 68 apiece. A tough contested shot in the paint dropped for Hecox giving Crown a two-point lead with just 8 seconds on the clock. Morris answered right back with a bucket of their own evening the score once again. Following a Crown timeout, with just 0.8 seconds to play, Hecox threw a perfect lob pass at the rim finding Hayla Flowers wide open on the opposite block and a tip in to win as time expired. Crown toppled Morris in dramatic fashion for the first time in NCAA history following 26 straight losses to the Cougars.

Madi Hecox and McKenzie Latzke led the Polars offensively with Hecox scoring 28 points and Latzke scoring 23. Isabelle Sager added another 10 rebounds to lead Crown on the boards. Hecox added 5 assists and Latzke added 5 steals.

The Polars are back in action Friday, January 13^th at 7:15pm at home versus Wisconsin-Superior for another UMAC matchup.