Northwestern College, ranked third in the NAIA II Top 25, forced Nebraska Wesleyan to 29 turnovers as the Red Raiders cruised to a 86-51 victory in Great Plains Athletic Conference women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 9) in Orange City, Iowa.

The loss drops NWU to 4-8 overall and 1-4 in the GPAC, while the Red Raiders improve to 15-2 and 6-1 in league play.

It was the first action since Dec. 21 for the NWU women and it was not an easy task facing one of the top teams in the country. The Prairie Wolves led 5-2 early, but that would be it as the Red Raiders picked up the defensive intensity and led 40-21 at halftime.

Northwestern shot 57.6 percent in the second half as they began pulling away from NWU. They finished the game shooting 54.0 percent from the floor.

A bright spot for the Prairie Wolves was the play of junior forward Denae Becker who came off the bench to score a career-high 19 points on 9-10 shooting. The only other player in double figures was Shea Rasmussen with 12 points. Starting center Sadie Struebing was held without a point or rebound and forward Katy Golden had just one field goal.

Four players reached double figures in scoring for Northwestern led by Kami Kuhlmann with 16 points.