SUPERIOR, Wis. -- The UW-Superior women's basketball team used a big third quarter to blow its regular-season finale with Crown wide open and went on for a 62-49 victory Saturday at Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium.
 
With the victory and a loss by Minnesota Morris at Northland, the Yellowjackets sewed up the No. 3 seed in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference tournament. Superior will face second-seeded North Central Wednesday at 7 p.m., at Clark Danielson Gymnasium in Minneapolis.
 
UWS (10-13, 8-6 UMAC) outscored Crown (13-11, 7-7), 24-7, in the third quarter, erasing a three-point halftime deficit, opening a 46-32 advantage heading to the fourth quarter. The teams played virtually even in the final 10 minutes as the 'Jackets, needing a win to qualify for postseason play, came away with the win.
 
Superior shot 45.1 percent for the game and over 64 percent (9-for-14) in the decisive third quarter. Sophomore Katie Dobson (Black River Falls, Wis./Black River Falls) and freshman MyKenzie Leccia (Somerset, Wis./Somerset) each scored five points in the third to lead the charge. Sam Parendo (Proctor, Minn./Proctor), one of three graduating players honored prior to the game in Senior Day ceremonies, tallied UWS with 11 points and freshman Elsa Olson (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) scoring 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting.
 
A Parendo layup followed by a 3-pointer by Dobson gave the Yellowjackets a 27-25 lead with 7:15 to go in the third quarter. Later, Olson converted a fastbreak layup off of a Bryton Kukowski (Duluth, Minn./Hermantown) steal to push the lead to 35-27 with 3:22 left in the frame. Leccia splashed a trey and Chloe Peterson (Hutchinson, Minn./Hutchinson) hit a layup, giving UWS a 40-29 edge with 2:04 remaining. Four Kukowski free throws and another Leccia bucket moved the Superior lead to 46-29 inside the final minute of the stanza.
 
Crown cut the deficit to 51-41 at the 5:44 mark in the fourth quarter on a McKenzie Latzke 3-pointer, but that was as close as the Polars got. Kukowski, Olson and Erika Mattson (Ely, Minn./Ely Memorial) put together a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to restore a comfortable margin.
 
The Yellowjackets were outrebounded, 35-27, but Crown turned the ball over 22 times, leading to 22 points.
 
Latzkescored a game-high 13 points and Madi Hekox added 11 points to pace Crown in a losing effort.