Box score
DUBUQUE, Iowa-- The Wartburg women's basketball team advanced to the Iowa Conference Tournament Championship game with its 72-68 upset over top-seed Dubuque Thursday. The Knights will face Luther in Decorah on Saturday for the Championship. The winner of this game receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

This marks the first Championship game appearance for Wartburg since 2009 and fourth overall appearance since tournament began in 2000.

"Dubuque did a nice job mixing defenses against us to try to keep us off balance, but our players did a nice job of staying composed and navigating through it," said head coach, Bob Amsberry. "I thought we showed a lot of maturity through a stretch in the second half when they made a run at us.
 
"Mary Brown did an outstanding job of holding Kotas in check again and showed why her ability to defend team's best players is so critical to our success," he continued. "We did a nice job of sharing the ball tonight and had good inside-outside balance." Kotas, the IIAC leading scorer, only had 13 points on the night, less than her IIAC average of 18.1 PPG.

Juniors Bobbie Burrows (Bondurant) and Kailey Kladivo (Traer) co-led the team with 18 points on the night.

The Orange and Black took the narrow 33-32 lead at halftime. In the second frame, the lead changed hands five times in the first three and a half minutes until Wartburg built its margin to 10 (52-42) with 10:13 to go.

The Spartans battled back and were within one (59-58) on a trey with 4:52 remaining and again at 69-68 with 22 seconds to play. After Dubuque called timeout with seven seconds left, it committed a costly turnover under its own basket to give the ball back to the Knights. Burrows was immediately fouled and she made her two free throws to seal the win.

As a team, the Orange and Black held the advantages in rebounds (41-28) and held Dubuque to .250 from three-point land. "Keeping them off the offensive glass tonight was critical," commented Amsberry.