Lady T's Get Split With Valley City, Mayville
By Dan Holsworth
Madison Daily Leader

     Dakota State University's basketball-playing Lady Trojans breezed to a 64-43 win over Valley City State University Friday, only to have Mavyille State clip the Lady T's 62-57 Saturday. Both games were played at the DSU Fieldhouse.

Jeff Dittman's Lady T's now take a 10-13 overall record and a 5-8 DAC-10 log into play at Rapid City Friday against South Dakota Tech and then face Black Hills State Saturday in Spearfish.

     DSU's defense put the clamps on Valley City Friday, limiting Valley City to just four points in the first 9:30 of the ballgame.  DSU led 26-20 at halftime and iced the game with a 39-23 second half.

     "We played an excellent second half of basketball," said Dittman.  "Our defense was strong throughout the evening, but we really got the offense going in the second period."

     Hali McClelland, Amber Malvin, Renae Bottum and Andrea Gullickson complemented that defensive play with double-fiugre scoring.  McClelland snapped in 18 points, Malvin 14, Bottum 12 and Gullickson 10 as the Lady T's had a decided 24-15 field goals edge over Valley City and outscored them 10-7 at the free throw line.

     "Hali had another great game," added Dittman.  "She has shown all year long that she is one of the top seniors in the league."

     Valley City got 13 points from Loni Hall and 10 by Lacey Turcotte, who also had nine rebounds.

     The Lady T's had a huge 53-36 rebound advantage over VCSU, with Amanda Zephier claiming 12 rebounds and McClelland 11.  "We were very aggressive in our rebounding," cited Dittman.  "This may have been our best effort to date on the boards.  Getting 23 offensive boards shows we can be dominant in that statistic."

     On Saturday, DSU failed to overtake Mayville, which led 22-17 at halftime.  Each team scored 40 points in the second half.  "I was very disappointed in our concentration in this game," said Dittman.  "We had a very bad defensive breakdown in the second half and we made a number of mental mistakes offensively that hurt our chances of winning."  The Lady T's turned the ball over 26 times and missed a number of easy shots.

     Bottum and McClelland were the Lady T's only double-digit scorers, garnering respectively, 13 and 12 points.  Robin Grinager and Zephier added eight points apiece as the Trojans went just 22-for-57 from the field and 9-15 at the free throw line.  Of DSU's 45 rebounds, 11 came from McClelland and eight from Sara Nelson.

     Mayville (9-14, 6-7) got 24 points by Tara Lalim, 12 from Jessica Haugan and 10 by Nicole Schumacher as Mayville went 21-63 in the field goals and 15-19 in free throws.  Mayville got nine rebounds from Kelly Lotozke and seven apiece by Lalim and Jill Mark.