Dakota State didn't reach
the Elite Eight of the NAIA
Division II national women's
basketball tournament last
season for no reason.
On Wednesday, the Lady
T's, sporting a
less-than-intimidating 14-10
record, handed eighth-ranked
Morningside College its second
straight home loss, holding off
a second-half rally for an 87-75
triumph at Allee Gym.
Dakota State, which fell
out of the national rankings
after back-to-back road losses
over the weekend, was certainly
not
intimidated by its surroundings.
Coach Jeff Dittman's squad,
which lost to Hastings in a
national tournament quarterfinal
last season, stormed to a 37-16
lead then fought off a torrid
Morningside rally in the second
half.
Sara Nelson, a 6-foot-2
senior, scored a career-high 26
points on 13 of 18 shooting for
the Dakota Athletic Conference
co-leaders. Jill
Hansen added 15 points while
Angela Carr came off the bench
to tally 13. Not to be
overlooked was the effort by
junior Jessica VanLoy, who
scored six points, grabbed 12
rebounds and handed out eight
assists.
"Sara got us started
inside with four big buckets in
the paint and that
caused
Morningside
to make some adjustments,
" said Dittman, who has guided
the Lady T's to four national
tournament berths in 14 seasons.
"The thing I liked is we knew we
were going to face a lot of
pressure, a lot of traps, and
the ladies
kept their composure,
looked down the floor and wound
up with a lot of easy buckets
because of the pressure."
Dakota State solved
Morningside's pressure defense
to the tune of 12 fast-break
points in the first half.
Nelson
made 7 of her first 8 shots and
the Lady T's shot 63.3 percent
(19 of 30) while taking a 44-29
lead at the break.
If
not for three 3-pointers by the
Mustangs in the final 1:38, the
lead could have been larger.
"We knew that they'd be
flying at everything and that
we'd have to have a good running
game over their press," said
Nelson, a Dell Rapids, S.D.,
product whose previous high was
22 points. "Their pressure in
the front court makes you look
to the back court and that's
what we did."
Morningside went to work
in the opening five minutes of
the second half, outscoring the
Lady T's 18-6. Back-to-back
conventional 3-point plays by
Leslie Foral and Dani Gass
pulled the Mustangs within
53-48, but Dakota State
regrouped and went on a 13-0
run, pushing its lead back to 18
points.
The Mustangs had one more
rally left in them, once again
fighting back to within five at
73-68 on a Gass bucket with 5:56
remaining. But Dakota
State,
which went nearly five minutes
without scoring, fended off the
challenge.
"I think we've played
better basketball than the team
that made the Elite Eight
last year, but there are
some great teams on our
schedule," said Dittman.
"We've
already played nine ranked teams
and three NCAA Division II
teams. I hope the schedule has
prepared us for the
stretch run
in our conference and for the
conference post-season
tournament."
Brittany Williamson, a
6-foot freshman from Emmetsburg,
Iowa, led Morningside with a
career-high 17 points in 23
minutes. Freshman
J.J. Hall added 14 points while
sophomores Autumn Bartel and
Gass chipped in 11 and 10
points, respectively.
Morningside shot 27 of 65
for 41.5 percent, making just 9
of 21 3-point shots, and was
outrebounded 41-28.
More
importantly, Dakota State held a
20-2 advantage in fast-break
points.
"We started out really
slow and couldn't hit any shots,
and they were hitting
everything," said Morningside
Coach Jamie Sale.
"For
whatever reason, we
weren't getting back on defense.
"It's a credit to our
girls that in the second half
they didn't roll over and showed
some heart. We're
at the point of the season where
we have no excuses, we just have
to try to get better."
Morningside, now 18-9
overall and coming off a solid
performance in a 70-62 loss at
Missouri Western, ranked No. 2
in NCAA Divison II, on Monday,
has two regular season games
remaining. The back-to-back home
losses were the first since the
2002-03 season. Saturday's game
at Briar Cliff gets under way at
5:30 p.m. |
