ST. JOSEPH, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's basketball team dropped its season opener to the University of Northwestern by a 52-41 margin to open the CSB Tip-Off on Friday evening at Claire Lynch Hall.

St. Olaf (0-1) fell in a 19-6 hole to Northwestern (1-0) after the first quarter and could not recover, as the Eagles held the Oles to 32.1 percent (17-for-53) shooting from the field. Northwestern was coming off a season that saw them win the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular-season and tournament titles and appear in the NCAA Tournament.

Junior Sarah Tangen scored a team-high nine points for St. Olaf, which got its offense going in the second quarter, outscoring Northwestern by a 16-10 margin, to get within seven points at halftime. The Eagles pulled away in the third quarter, opening up a 48-30 lead after three before the Oles held Northwestern to four points in the fourth quarter.

Junior Sophia Kormann had the second-highest scoring output of her career since her rookie season with seven points and four rebounds, while senior Cayden Botten added five points and five rebounds. First year Bree Wilkerson provided five points and six rebounds off the bench.

Defensively, the Oles limited the Eagles to 38.6 percent shooting (22-for-57), but Northwestern used a balanced scoring attack with three Eagles in double figures in the wire-to-wire win. Northwestern enjoyed a 19-5 advantage in points off turnovers in the game.

St. Olaf concludes the season-opening tournament against the University of Minnesota Morris on Saturday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m.