Box Score Tiffany Gregorich (Altoona, WI, Altoona) proved why she was a preseason All-American by leading the Falcons to a 75-59 victory over Simpson College Saturday afternoon at the Karges Center.
Gregorich had a career-high 33 points in a game that was a back and forth contest until the closing minutes. Her previous career high was 31 against Whitewater on Jan. 8, 2011. The senior guard came through with her best moments when UWRF was down by 10 late in the first half. After a 10-0 run by Simpson, Gregorich drained back-to-back three-pointers to trim the lead to four. She then converted two free throws to cut the lead to two with 38 seconds remaining in the half. A steal by Gregorich then set-up a
Lauren Pellowski (St. Paul, MN, Tartan) jumper as time expired to send the Falcons into the locker room at half time with the scored tied at 30.
Gregorich would end her stellar performance with four of the team's 10 steals, a 9-13 shooting performance from the field, a season's best 5-8 on three-pointers and 10-12 from behind the line. She is now averaging 15.3 points per game.
The second half would open in a back and forth contest that featured six ties before the Falcons went on a scoring spree and never looked back. With 7:45 remaining, the score was tied ay 49 after a made free throw by Chelsie Rohrs of Simpson. After that, the Falcons went on a 12-0 run to put the game out of reach. During that span, Gregorich would make two of her five three-pointers, and a layup for eight of the 12 points.
Nikki Guhr (Muskego, WI, Muskego) had the other four.
Guhr also had a stellar performance, as she would end the contest with 15 points, three steals, and five rebounds.
Maranda Dohrn (Lake City, MN, Lake City) also had 15 points, a season's best for the senior post player. She was just shy of a double double with her team-leading nine rebounds. As a team, the Falcons outrebounded Simpson 46-33.
Alise Holst (Plainview, MN, Plainview-Elgin-Millville) added eight boards to aide the No. 14 Falcons to a perfect 10-0 record.
Jamie Elbert led Simpson with 14 points. No other Simpson player reached double digits.
The Falcons made a season-high seven three-pointers. Five of them were Gregorich's. Holst accounted for the other two. As a team, the Falcons were 7-13 for 53.8 percent.
The Falcons also shot slightly better than Simpson. On the night, the Falcons were 21-56 from the field for 37.5 percent. Simpson meanwhile, was 20-57 for 35.1 percent.
With the victory, the Falcons are now 10-0 overall. Simpson falls to 7-3.
"This is a big win for us because Simpson has a great team," said Falcon Coach
Cindy Holbrook. "Being 10-0 right now if a great spot to be in especially since we've played three WIAC games on the road. We're going to take a little break for the holidays and then play a couple of games in Las Vegas before getting back to WIAC play."
"The turning point came with about seven minutes to play," said Holbrook. "We got a couple of good defensive stops and Tiff hit a couple of big threes and we were able to go on a run."
"Tiffany had a great game in getting a career-high 33 points. And Nikki (Guhr) and Maranda (Dohrn) also had strong games for us."
Up next for the undefeated Falcons is the Las Vegas Sports Tour. The Falcons will take on Thomas More College at 9 a.m. PT on Dec. 28. The Falcons have never matched up against Thomas More in school history.
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This game marked the second time this season the Falcons have defeated Simpson. On Nov. 18, the Falcons won 79-73 at the Luther Tip-Off Tournament in Iowa.
