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

DSU's Jennie Sonne (54) eyes the bucket but gets bumped by Valley City's Darcie Engelby, resulting in Sonne collecting two of her 16 points at the free throw line. VCSU's Kelly Martin and the Lady T's Amy Balk trailed the play.      Dakota State University's women forged a 32-13 first-half advantage over Valley City State University Thursday at the DSU Fieldhouse. The Lady Trojans, with a 42-32 second half, then dispatched Valley City State 74-45 in Dakota Athletic Conference women's hoops play.      "We did an excellent job defensively in the first half, holding Valley City to only 13 points," said Jeff Dittman, DSU's head coach. "We were able to maintain that lead, and even build on it, in the second half. I thought we came back well after the loss we had on the road Sunday.      "We also got our running game going again, and got a number of fastbreak opportunities. We didn't hit as many of the layups as we should have, but we continuously kept the pressure on Valley City."      Jennie Sonne, Jessica Honermann and Hali McClelland worked their inside routes in the first half.  Sonne scored eight of her game-high 16 points in the game's first 20 minutes, while Honermann was right behind, netting seven of her 13 game points, and McClelland added six of her twelve total points.  In the second half, Erin Nielsen came off the bench to net all of her 10 points to spark the Lady T's final 20 minutes of play.      On the night, DSU went 24-of-56 from the field and added a 23-28 tour at the charity stripes.  The Lady T's defense limited Valley City State to 19-59 field goal shooting, holding them scoreless from beyond the 3-point arc.  VCSU was just 7-10 from the free throw line in the ballgame.      The Lady Vikings got double-digit scoring from Kristel Engelby, Allison Clarys and Darcie Engelby, who had respective 13-, 12- and 10-point outings.  Defensively for Valley City, Darcie Engelby produced four steals.      Off the boards, DSU garnered a 41-35 rebound edge, with Sonne completing a double-double performance by swiping 12 rebounds.  "We got a huge game out of Jennie," stressed Dittman.        Honermann also had four assists and McClelland, Amy Balk and Molly Hathaway each had three steals, helping force Valley City into 18 turnovers.       The Lady T's take their 10-4 overall record and 4-1 conference mark into play at the Fieldhouse Sunday, facing Mayville State at 6 p.m.