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Dakota
State University's comeback road ended Thursday in
the Sioux City Auditorium, as the Lady T's lost a
54-45 first-round game to Evangel University of
Springfield, Mo., in the NAIA Women's Division II
Tournament.
The Lady T's ended the season with a 20-12 record,
while Evangel, co-champions of the Heartland
Conference, lifted their log to 28-8 prior to their
second-round encounter against Sterling (Kan.)
College Friday.
"This team wasn't even considered a Top Five
pick in the preseason DAC-10 Conference poll,"
said Jeff Dittman, the Lady T's head coach.
"But they played their way to a 20-win season
and a berth here in the NAIA Tournament."
Even though DSU shot just 16 percent (3-18) in the
first half, the Lady T's were down by just four
points, 22-18, at halftime Thursday. |
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| The
Lady T's Amber Malvin (34) gets past Evangel's Kati
Wilson (30) on a drive to the basket during
Thursday's first-round NAIA Women's Div. II Tourney
game in Sioux City. |
"We had a terrible shooting percentage in the first 20
minutes of the ballgame," said Dittman. "We
could have been down by 10-15 points if it wasn't for our
ability to get to the free throw line."
Evangel widened the gap to 50-35 with a little over four
minutes left in the game, helped along by Lachelle Jibben,
who converted three 3-pointers. At that point, DSU
staged an 8-0 scoring surge to get within seven points,
50-43, of Evangel.
"I am always proud of the way this team competes,"
added Dittman. "They did so when they were down
against Dickinson, and they tried their hardest to do so
again today."
Against Dickinson State in the DAC-10 Postseason
championship game, the Lady T's were down by 11 points at
one point before coming back to win the tourney's
championship game with a 49-42 verdict.
Jessica Honermann and Amy Balk shouldered much of the
scoring load for DSU, scoring 11 points each. Amber
Malvin was close behind with eight counters. DSU wound
up with just 9-of-35 field goal shooting and 26-of-34 free
throw shooting figures.
In addition to Jibben's 10 points, Evangel got 16 counters
by Stephanie Lawson as the Crusaders went 18-52 from
the field and 14-23 at the charity stripe. Evangel
outrebounded DSU by a 38-34 margin, with Megan Bernardy and
Mandy Steimol each claiming six rebounds and NaTasha Neal
five.
The Lady T's got eight rebounds by McClelland and five
apiece by Honermann and Jennie Sonne.
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