Lady T's Race By Valley City State
By Dan Holsworth
Madison Daily Leader

     It took a 40-28 second-half scoring surge by Dakota State University's basketball-playing Lady T's to earn a 75-68 DAC-10 Conference win over Valley City State University.

     Valley City State had constructed a 40-35 halftime advantage over Jeff Dittman's Lady T's before his women took over the second half.  "Going into the game, we felt there were three keys to us winning," said Dittman.  "We had to stop their point guard from penetrating, not allow them open-court situations and not let them get to the free throw line."

     Dittman admitted that the Lady T's didn't get that accomplished in the first half.  "In the first half, we weren't very successful with any of the three keys.  We gave up 18 points to their point guard, Molly Anderson (who wound up with 28), in the first half," added Dittman.  "This opened a lot of options for their offense.  We had turnovers that allowed Valley City to get out and run on us, and we put them on the free throw line for 19 shots.  This allowed Valley City to score 40 points on us by halftime and have a five-point lead."

     Dittman, however, was very pleased with his Lady T's second-half play.  "In the second half, we had much better concentration at both ends of the court," said Dittman.  "Our defense shut them down to only 28 points, while our offense scored 40 by shooting 45 percent from the field."

     Dittman was especially pleased with the play of his double-figure scorers Kathy Shypulski, Jennie Sonne and Jessica Honermann.

Kathy Shypulski	Jennie Sonne	Jessica Honermann

        Shypulski had 18 team-top points for the Lady T's, while Sonne and Honermann were right behind with respective 17- and 16-point games.  "We had those three players with double-figure scoring," said Dittman.  "Jennie was also dominant on the boards, grabbing nine to help us outrebound Valley City by five boards."  DSU also got eight counters apiece from Heidi Honermann and Hali McClelland.

     In addition to Anderson's 28 points, Valley City also got 16 from Michelle Dyck.

     DSU's next women's hoops action comes in the Black Hills this weekend, playing Black Hills State in Spearfish Friday and S.D. Tech Saturday in Rapid City.

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