Wednesday, it was 10th-ranked
Shawnee State of Ohio that bit the dust.
Friday, the 18th-ranked Dakota
State women's basketball team added No. 4 Tabor to its hit list, riding its
deep stable of post players to an impressive 77-58 triumph in second-round
NAIA Division II tournament play.
You just might think the Lady T's
deserved more respect from the pollsters or, at least, the tournament
seeding committee. Or, you might just think a team with five sophomore
starters is coming into its own at the best possible time.
Coach Jeff Dittman's fourth
national tournament team in seven years became the second to reach the
quarterfinals, pounding the ball inside, where Dittman has more depth than
probably any of the 32 teams that made it to Sioux City this week.
The Dakota Athletic Conference
co-champs start 6-2 Maria Gengler and 6-1 Laura Tewes, who contributed 12
and 10 points, respectively. But they also have 6-2 junior Sara
Nelson, who came off the bench to score a team-high 14 points, and 6-2
sophomore Stacy Dunklau, who added five.
"It's the first time all year we
just got handled inside," said Tabor Coach Rusty Allen, whose team also
showcased its interior prowess while putting together a 28-5 season.
"They're not just big, they're all athletic. I thought all four of
them really played well."
Dakota State, 22-10, didn't have
bad guard play, either. Jessica VanLoy dished off seven assists and
Angela Carr added six while also scoring nine points.
The Lady T's, a No. 6 seed, were
the only seed lower than a No. 5 to emerge from the first round. The
only other so-called upsets involved two of the 5's, who are paired up with
No. 4 seeds in each of four eight-team bracket sections.
"In our league, when you get on a
bus and ride for eight hours to get to your Friday game, then get up the
next morning and ride another three or four hours for your Saturday
match-up, it's pretty difficult to go through the league schedule without a
few losses," said Dittman, whose team went 10-4 in DAC play, tying with
Minot State, another national tournament team.
The DAC has enjoyed considerable
success in this tournament and it's the last league to snare a champion
(Mary, N.D. in 2000) since the Great Plains Athletic Conference was formed
in 2000-01. GPAC teams have taken home the trophy every year since,
winning five in a row.
"We have a lot of very good
sophomores in our league," said Dittman, who has more than anyone with seven
among his top 11 players, only one of whom is a senior. Six of them
made up a dynamite recruiting class two years ago and Dunklau transferred in
last year after playing one season of volleyball at the University of
Nevada-Las Vegas.
Amber Malvin, the lone senior, fed
Nelson for an easy lay-in that sent Dakota State in front 16-15 midway
through the first half and the Lady T's owned the lead the rest of the way.
It was a 39-31 advantage at halftime and Tabor was still within range with
9:57 left in the game, trailing 55-49.
Dakota State outscored the Blue
Jays 16-2 over the next five minutes to put the game on ice. gaining a 71-51
cushion with just over four minutes remaining.
Like Dakota State, Tabor took its
scoring lead from a non-starter as senior guard Erica Dechant, averaging
just 3.9 points, sprang for 15. A 50 percent shooter from three-point
range (27 of 54), Dechant hit three of seven tries from the arc while the
Jays struggled through a 33 percent shooting performance (23 of 70).
Senior guard Erica Hemmert, the
Kansas Collegiate Conference player of the year, totaled 12 points for the
Hillsboro, Kan., team while classmate Jill Hein added 10.
Next up for Dakota State is a 1
p.m. quarterfinal today with third-ranked Hastings, Neb. (28-6).
