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Dakota State went on a 12-2 run over the last four
minutes, coming away a 92-82 winner over Morningside in
an early season battle of NAIA Division II
nationally-ranked women's basketball teams here
Wednesday night.
It
was the second straight victory for ninth-ranked Dakota
State (3-0) over No. 8 Morningside (2-1). The Lady T's
beat Morningside 87-75 last season in Sioux City in the
first-ever meeting between the two schools on Feb. 7.
Laura Tewes of Dakota State tossed in a game-high
24 points, including a basket with 4:15 remaining to tie
the game at 80-80. The Lady T's then scored 10
unanswered points and Morningside didn't score again
until a bucket by Brittany Williamson with 32 seconds
left.
"The
offenses for both teams dominated this game," stated DSU
Head Coach Jeff Dittman. "I think both teams have
good defenses but everyone hit shots and made plays all
game long. I was very pleased with a number of
performances last night and I was really pleased with
the way we closed the game out."
Morningside,
which opened the game with a 10-0 run, led 52-48 at
halftime but was outscored 44-30 in the final 20
minutes. The Mustangs of Coach Jamie Sale opened the
second half with an 8-0 run but Dakota State went on a
17-4 spurt to take a 65-64 lead with 12:56 remaining.
It was back-and-forth from there until Dakota State went
on the decisive game-ending run.
Jill
Hansen added 17 points and Maria Gengler 14 for the Lady
T's while Angela Carr came off the bench to contribute
11 points.
All
five Morningside starters reached double figures, led by
sophomore Leslie Foral with a career-high 21 points.
Autumn Bartel and J.J. Hall tacked on 15 points each,
Dani Gass 13 and Brittany Williamson 10. Gass, a
returning first-team All-American, also had seven
rebounds and nine assists.
Dakota State's Jessica VanLoy finished with eight
points, 11 rebounds and nine assists. The Lady T's shot
56.9 percent from the field in the second half.
When
asked what the Lady T's will be working on in practice
this week, Dittman said, "We will have to do a better
job at rebounding. "We'll also need to defend the
perimeter better. But, we have to give credit to
Morningside. They have a number of players that
are great penetrators and shooters. They made us
pay every time we made a mistake in our rotations."
Dakota State opened the season with a 56-53 victory at
third-ranked Hastings last Thursday and beat Baker 82-55
the following night.
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