MILWAUKEE -- Trailing by 10 points with less than 14 minutes to play, Alverno College used a 14-2 run to take a two point lead and come away with a 62-51 Northern Athletics Conference victory versus the visiting Maranatha Baptist Crusaders this afternoon in Reiman Gymnasium. The win is the seventh-straight victory for the Inferno.

"The credit in the first half goes to Maranatha," Alverno head coach Brad Duckworth said. "That's a team that, if anything, you know they are going to play you as hard as they can for every possession."

Maranatha, the conference's leader in defensive field goal percentage, held the Inferno (10-8, 8-4 NAC) to just 25 percent shooting (7-of-28) and 18 points in the first half, going only 1-of-8 on 3-point attempts.

Kristin Morrison (Jefferson, Wis.) led the Crusaders (5-10, 2-10 NAC) with 16 first half points, and finished with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-12 shooting. With Maranatha leading 20-18 with 6:22 to play in the half, both teams struggled offensively, not scoring for the next four minutes. But Morrison would then close the period with a 6-0 run of her own for the 26-18 halftime score.

"Today was kind of a 'catch-game' for us," said Duckworth. "We used all that emotion to beat Wisconsin Lutheran on Thursday night, then 36 hours later you have to beat a team that always comes to work. I got on the team pretty hard at halftime to wake them up."

Fortunately for the Inferno, they decided to wake up with just under 14 minutes to play in the game--the beginning of the 14-2 run. Junior point guard Gabby Allen (Milwaukee, Wis./Bay View) began the run with a 3-point field goal, and a steal by Allen on the next possession led to a pair for free throws for freshman Kelsey Kochanowski (Oak Creek, Wis.). Kochanowski would follow that with a 3-point make of her own, cutting the lead to four points with 12:09 to play.

After a steal by Kochanowski, junior guard Shataya McComb (Kingston, N.Y.) would hit two big 3-pointers the next two possessions to give the Inferno the 40-38 lead.

Minutes later McComb would nail her third 3-pointer of the game, and the Inferno's fifth of the half for the four point cushion.

The Crusaders gave it anther go, tying the game two more times before the Inferno would finish the game on a 15-4 run for the 62-51 final. Senior guard Lisa Sorgi (Milwaukee, Wis./Greenfield) and freshman center Rachel Diedrich (Two Rivers, Wis.) would combine for 14 of the final 15 points during that final 7 minute run.

"Whatever it takes to win," said Duckworth. "Lisa is going to get it done. She does the dirty work."

Sorgi finished with 12 points, but had a number of key rebounds and steals in the second half, finishing with team-highs of six rebounds and five steals.

Diedrich scored a team-high 16 points, going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, and McComb finished with 14 points, shooting 5-of-7 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the arc.

Kochanowski had a team-high four assists and chipped in seven points and five rebounds.

The Inferno shot 54.2 percent in the second half--compared to the Crusaders' 22.2 percent--and hit every 3-point shot (5-of-5). Alverno also hit 13-of-16 attempts from the free-throw line in the period, finished the game at 80 percent (16-of-20).

Defensively, Allen and Diedrich each had five blocked shots, tying the Alverno single-game record. Allen now has 55 blocks in her career, just one behind the Alverno all-time leader Kim Murray (2003-06), while Diedrich has 52 in her rookie season.

Sorgi also had two blocks, helping set a new single-game record at Alverno with 12 team blocks.

In other NAC action tonight, South Division leader Wisconsin Lutheran fell to Lakeland 59-58 in overtime, putting Alverno even with WLC (9-4 NAC) in the loss column, just a half game back of first place.

The Inferno are next in action on Monday at Benedictine University, a chance to officially tie WLC for first place in the South. Coach Duckworth believes the WLC loss today will help his team focus better in upcoming games.

"When you're waiting for help, there's always that thought in the back of the mind of 'Will you get it?' Now that we've gotten some help, I think it's a motivator. We don't have to worry about any other game than our own the rest of the way. It's only about the Alverno team, who we play, and what do we have to do to win."