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Women's basketball closes out home season with split
Coming into the weekend, the SCSU women's basketball team knew that they would have to pull off something special in their final home stand against nationally ranked North Dakota teams in order to stay in the NCC playoff race.
The Huskies did just that in a 82-47 slaughter over the 23-ranked NDSU Bison, but would lose to the #3 (#1 in NCC) UND Fighting Sioux, 75-65.
Everything went right for the Huskies on Friday night against the NDSU Bison. The Bison's only lead of the night was 6-5 with 17:02 left in the first half. The Huskies' bench squad made up of Katie Huschle, Molly Jensen, Jonelle Streed, Celestine Frank and Kristine DeGroot provided an early spark that lead to an 18-8 lead at the 11:00 minute mark.
"We got a bonus tonight (Friday) because that second five that went in there not only maintained but built us a huge lead," said coach Lori Ulferts.
As many onlookers squinted their eyes in disbelief, the Huskies went into the locker room with a 38-20 lead. Things would only get better for SCSU in the second half.
The Huskies would go on to shoot 48 percent from the field in the second half. DeGroot hit a big jump hook and was fouled, which led to a three-point play to give the Huskies a 50-26 lead with 15:34 left. After Tina Schreiner buried a jumper with 5:47 left the Huskies were looking at their biggest lead of the night at 71-35. The two seniors, Schreiner and Nicole Persby came out of the game and received loud applause at the five-minute mark.
The Huskies shot an incredible 46 percent from the field while the Bison struggled, shooting only 27 percent (18-66). The Huskies out rebounded a taller NDSU team 51-38. Schreiner lead the Huskies with 25 points and eight rebounds and Persby had 12 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds. Kristine DeGroot enjoyed every second of the stomping against her former team as she picked them apart inside with 13 points and eight rebounds.
"We just played together. Every time we got a turnover we'd pick each other up, and we really held together," DeGroot said. "We just went in there with attitude tonight."
That attitude forced 19 Bison turnovers and didn't allow any of them to reach double figures. Angela Mayo led NDSU with eight points and seven rebounds. The win tied the two teams in the conference with 8-7 records, which ties them with Augustana for third place in the NCC
Saturday the Huskies would have their biggest test of the season against UND. It was seniors, Tina Schreiner and Nicole Persby's last home game, and the electricity in the packed Halenbeck Hall was not hard to feel as the lights dimmed for the starting line ups.
It didn't take Persby and Schreiner long to make their presence felt. Persby scored the Huskies' first four points and dished off to Schreiner for her first bucket of the night to give the Huskies an 8-6 lead with 14:18 remaining. Although the Huskies shot only 28.6 percent from the field, they led 34-28 at halftime. In the second half, UND slowly came back. Becky Moen hit a jumper to tie the game at 43 at the 14:00 mark and to give her 1,001 points during her career at UND. Megan Pick hit a three pointer to give UND the lead 53-50, which they would keep the rest of the game.
The game was an all out struggle for possession as the Huskies had 21 turnovers and UND had 19.
The Huskies out rebounded UND 36-34 but shot 38 percent from the field compared to the 48 percent UND shot. SCSU struggled terribly from beyond the arc, shooting 1-11.
Schreiner led both teams in points, rebounds and steals with 21 points, 15 rebounds and four steals. Persby added 15 points for the Huskies and was given a standing ovation from Husky fans when she fouled out with 20 seconds left.
"It was great. The Schreiners had a huge group there and the Persbys were on the north end. It was a great night for those two seniors," Ulferts said. "We'll miss those two. They're a great pair and we've had them for a long time. They've played a lot of minutes for St Cloud State. They're just great people, great students and great athletes."
The Huskies record moved to 8-8 in the NCC, while UND held their ground at the top of the conference with a 12-4 record.
SCSU closes out their season next weekend on the road against Morningside and South Dakota. Both games start at 6 p.m.
Bobby Hart can be reached at: [email protected]
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