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Dakota State University couldn't end its winless
road record in Minnesota, suffering a pair of
razor-thin losses to Northwestern Minn. at St. Paul,
52-51, Friday and the U. of Minn.-Morris, 55-52,
Saturday in Morris.
"We were very
disappointed with the results of these two
games," said DSU coach Jeff Dittman. "We
felt that we outplayed both teams for the majority
of the games, yet couldn't hold them off at the
end. Our defense should have been able to make
the key stops necessary. Our offense must execute
better in the last five minutes to keep the pressure
on our opponents. We did neither, consequently we
lost both road games."
Dakota State is a perfect
5-0 on its home Fieldhouse floor; but, with its two
weekend defeats, are 0-4 on the road. In both
Minnesota ballgames, the Lady T's enjoyed halftime
leads. Dakota State had a 25-20 lead over
Northwestern at halftime and were ahead 30-24 at
Morris.
The Lady T's road tour
continues this coming weekend in N.D., with stops at
Bismarck against the University of Mary Friday and
Jamestown against Jamestown College Saturday.
Northwestern
52
DSU 51
Northwestern's late second-half surge enabled it to
overtake the Lady T's by a single tally.
"We led for approximately 36 of the 40 minutes
in this game, but couldn't hold onto the lead in the
last few minutes," said Dittman.
Dakota State got a pair of
double-figure scoring performances by Hali
McClelland and Renae Bottum Friday. McClelland
popped in 12 points and Bottum 10 to lead the Lady
T's. Robin Grinager and Amber Malvin added,
respectively, nine and eight points.
A 3-pointer by Bottum and a
pair of 2's by McClelland and Andrea Gullickson gave
the Lady T's a one-point lead with 40 seconds left
in the game. Northwestern, however, made the
most of its final offensive drive, netting the
winning basket with 12 second left in the game.
Dakota State shot 17-for-49
from the field and 14-25 at the freethrow
line. Northwestern got 13 points from Val
Holman and 11 more points and 12 rebounds by Sara
Tonneson as it went 22-61 from the field and had a
45-32 edge over DSU in rebounds.
UM-Morris
55
DSU 52
In between a game-opening 3-0 lead by UMM and a
three-point, 55-52, spread at the end of the game,
Dakota State led the rest of the way, according to
Dittman. Sara Nelson led the Lady T's offense,
netting 13 points on 5-10 field goal shooting, while
Malvin tacked on 10 more tallies. Gullickson also
had eight points and Bottum seven.
The Lady T's outgunned UMM
22-20 in field goals, but the Lady Cougars outscored
DSU 13-6 in freethrow successes.
UMM got 20 tilt-tops points
by Malinda Berglund and 11 more from Stacy Nordgren.
Emily Loehr added seven points, while Cari Wooley,
Kay Saager and Morgan Chatmon each had five.
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