Amy Puthoff's 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds to play gave Augustana a 65-63 non-conference women's basketball victory over Dakota State on Saturday at the Elmen Center in Sioux Falls.  Augustana (14-3) led 62-57 with 2:44 to play.  However, the Lady T's would battle back when Jessica VanLoy hit a 3-pointer with 1:50 to play and a Maria Gengler layup tied the score at 62-62 with 1:21 left.

     Augustana missed a shot but got the rebound with 33 seconds left. Following a timeout, the Vikings ran the clock down before Puthoff buried a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Vikings a 65-62 lead.

     Dakota State (8-7) was not done yet though. VanLoy was fouled with 1.7 seconds to play. She made the first attempt and intentionally missed the second. The rebound bounced long off the rim to VanLoy. She was able to get another shot off but the ball bounced off the back of the rim as the final buzzer sounded.

     "We played an excellent game against a nationally ranked DII team to tonight," said Lady T's coach Jeff Dittman.  "Our defense has been inconsistent lately but I thought we did a good job of contesting their shots all night, including blocking nine shots.  Holding Augustana to 65 points is a very good defensive effort."

     DSU led for most of the first half, including a 23-15 advantage at the 8:53 mark.    But Augustana countered with a 10-1 run, capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Liz Helsper and Whitney Hofer, to take a 25-24 lead with 7:07 on the clock. The Vikings led 34-30 at halftime.

     For DSU, VanLoy had 13 points, Laura Tewes 12 and Jill Hansen 10. Angela Carr scored nine points to pass the 1,000 mark for her career.

     Holiday had 17 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Puthoff had 14 points, while Hayes had a career-high 10 assists.

     "This ends our pre-conference schedule," said Dittman.  "It was the toughest non-conference schedule in Lady T's history and we competed well with every team we played.  Now we have to use this preparation to make a run at our third consecutive Dakota Athletic Conference championship.  This will be the most difficult of the three as Tech, Black Hills and Mayville may have their best teams in recent years.  Add in Jamestown, Minot, Valley City and Dickinson and basketball fans are in for some great games in the next six weeks."