St. Bonifacius, MN – The Polars Women's Basketball teams faced of with the University of Minnesota Morris Cougars on Saturday in their first game of 2024 and fell by a score of 80-54. 

Early on the name of the game was the three ball as Crown hit on their first triples of the game. Crown stifled the Morris offense in the first quarter only allowing 12 points while holding the 15-12 lead. The Cougars exploded out of the gate in the second quarter going on a 9-1 run over a five minute span. The Polars battled right back after four combined threes from Latzke and Raelin Smalley and cut the Cougars lead to just two points as the score at halftime read 35-33 Morris in the lead.

The third quarter saw Crown struggled offensively as the Polars only managed to score seven points across the ten minute stretch. The Cougars added up multiple buckets and kept the scoring coming as they rattled off a 24 point third quarter and stretch the lead to nineteen points. Minnesota Morris held on from there as Crown couldn't mount a comeback in the fourth quarter. The final score favored the Cougars 80-54.

McKenzie Latzke scored over half of the Polars points on the day as she totaled 30 points on 10 made buckets, 8 of them three balls. The record was previously held by Judy Mundt who knocked down 7 threes against Sioux Falls in 2010. Elli Hemann totaled 7 points and Mya Morris totaled 6 points. Morris led the Polars with 5 assists in the contest. Isabelle Sager led the rebounding with 9 on the afternoon.

Crown as a team shot 29.4% from the field and 27.5% from three point range. The Cougars dominated in the paint scoring 46 of their 80 points in the paint. 

The Polars fall to 2-11 on the season and 1-2 in UMAC play and will be back at home next week with a Friday, January 6th contest against UMAC foe Martin Luther College at 5:30pm.