After initially trailing Dubuque for the first quarter, the Coe women’s basketball team managed to come back and win 85-77 in the Iowa Conference game Wednesday night at Eby Fieldhouse.

The lead changed nine times as the Kohawks (8-8, 3-2) battled back and forth with the Spartans (11-5, 4-1).

Mackenzie Reed was the top scorer with 22 points for the Kohawks. Reed said the team mentality was to “work the ball around and just be patient; don’t rush into any shots.”

The game was tied 13 times as the teams struggled to gain a solid lead against each other. Dubuque’s largest lead was only eight points with 14:12 left in the first half.

At halftime Coe barely led 32-30, but the game was tied again within the first 10 seconds of the second half.

With only three minutes left, Coe was up by seven points and Coach Randi Peterson addressed her team with last-minute advice.

“I just reminded them that at that time it is a possession game, meaning we want to take advantage of our possessions and force them into longer possessions and not quick shots,” she said.

Those strategies seemed to work for the Kohawks as they pulled away from the Spartans, gaining their largest lead of 11 points with only 36 seconds left in the game.

The close nature of the game wasn’t lost on Peterson.

“Dubuque is a really powerful team with a lot of people that can score and they went on a couple of big runs, so just making sure those runs didn’t get too great was one of the bigger challenges,” she said.

Megan Hayes scored consistently for Coe throughout the game, racking up 21 points and Mary Halvorson added another 16 for the Kohawks. Jenna Kotas led Dubuque with 23 points.

After the game Peterson talked about the upcoming challenge of facing Luther Saturday at home.

She said the team is planning on “coming in with the same mentality of taking advantage of the places that we’re strong and they’re weak and vice versa, and hopefully coming in with a good game plan.”

DUBUQUE (77): Emily Brinker 2-7 3-4 8, Jenna Kotas 9-18 3-3 23, Stephany Remakel 1-2 2-5 4, Jessica Goetz 5-15 0-1 11, Kayla Springer 3-7 4-5 10, Meggie Schmidt 2-4 1-2 7, Jennifer Fischer 1-1 0-0 2, Brittany Collier 0-2 0-0 0, Adrianna Stephens 3-5 3-7 9, Angela Powell 0-3 0-0 0, Heather Chapman 0-1 0-0 0, Daneshia Snitker 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 27-67 17-29 77.

COE (85): Hannah Breitbach 4-9 1-2 12, Mackenzie Reed 7-17 8-8 22, Megan Hayes 7-15 7-10 21, Allie Wirth 0-2 1-2 1, Mickey Hansche 2-8 2-2 8, Lindsey Jipp 1-3 2-4 4, Brooke Wheelwright 0-0 0-0 0, Logan Lynch 0-0 0-0 0, Mary Halvorson 3-8 10-10 16, Lindsey Buckles 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 24-63 32-40 85.

Halftime - Coe 32, Dubuque 30. 3-point goals - Dubuque 6-23 (Kotas 2-9, Schmidt 2-4, Brinker 1-2, Goetz 1-4, Springer 0-2, Collier 0-1, Stephens 0-1), Coe 5-13 (Breitbach 3-6, Hansche 2-6, Jipp 0-1). Rebounds - Dubuque 31 (Remakel, Goetz 6), Coe 33 (Reed, Buckles 6). Total fouls - Dubuque 30, Coe 26. Fouled out - Remakel.