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Coach Jeff
Dittman's Lady Trojans kept themselves within striking
distance of South Dakota Tech and the University of
Mary, who are tied for first place in the DAC-10's
women's basketball standings. Dakota State University's Lady
T's gained a split against Valley City
State and Mayville State Friday and Saturday in Madison.
On Friday, the Lady T's slipped up and lost 60-55 to
Valley City State, but came back and dished out a
lopsided 87-64 loss to Mayville State. "We did a
poor job of shooting the ball, and that was our downfall
Friday," said Dittman. "This was a pretty
disappointing loss. We had a lot of fans come to
cheer us, but we weren't able to perform at the level we
had been playing."
Saturday's game against Mayville was a completely
different set of circumstances, according to Dittman.
"This game turned out to be a
180-degree turn from Friday's game. I was very
pleased that we came back strong and got
a win. That showed some maturity on the part of
our athletes."
The weekend split gave the Lady T's a 3-1 conference
mark, while Tech and Mary shared first place in the
DAC-10 with identical 3-0 records. Following
semester finals, the Lady T's hit the road, going out
West to play Black Hills State at Spearfish Friday and
S.D. Tech on Saturday in Rapid City.
"This is a big week for us," cited Dittman. "We
will take final tests and then head out to the Hills for
a pair of games with longtime rivals Black Hills State
and Tech. This will be a tremendous challenge for
us, and I'm looking forward to seeing how our athletes
respond to it."
Valley City 60, DSU 55
Shooting just
29 percent, 21-for-72, from the field was discouraging
for the Lady T's Friday.
"You aren't going to win many games with that
percentage," admitted Dittman. DSU also had 30
turnovers in the game, while Valley City miscued 20
times. Valley
City nursed a 27-26 lead at halftime.
Laura Tewes was the
only Lady T to enter double-figure scoring, getting 15
points on 6-9 field goal shooting. Maria Gengler
and Sara Nelson, however, just missed double scoring
digits with twin 9-point outings, while Angie Carr had
eight.
Valley
City, backed by a trio of double-figure scorers, got 23
field goals. Nicolle James and Lone Hall each had
12 points while Janae Larson had 10. Valley City
had a 47-43 edge in rebounding as James hauled in 14
rebounds for the winners. Tewes and Gengler each
had seven for the Lady T's.
DSU
87, Mayville 64
Tewes led the Lady T's in
scoring Saturday, netting 16 points as the Lady T's shot
a healthy 53 percent, 34-64, from the field.
Tewes, however, was supported by Nelson's 13-point
performance as a dozen Lady T's got points. Robin
Grinager, Renae Bottum, and Gengler each had eight
points, while Lindsey Binger, Jessica VanLoy and Carr
had six apiece.
"We
got strong contributions from a number of people," said
Dittman. "it didn't matter who we put in, everyone
was focused and executed our offense and defense pretty
well." DSU had a 35-31 halftime cushion and then
went on a 52-33 second-half scoring tear.
The
Lady T's dominated the boards, outrebounding Mayville
47-26. Stacy Dunklau swiped 10 rebounds for the
Lady T's, who also got eight rebounds by Tewes and six
apiece from VanLoy and Amanda Zephier.
Mayville got 15 points from Jessica Haugen and 10 more
by Erika Anderson. Fedowsa Ahmad had five rebounds
and Steph Meggers had four.
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