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One and done for women's playoffs
The SCSU women's basketball team's season ended with a bang Tuesday night, with a 100-68 stomping at the hands of South Dakota State in the quarterfinals of the Wells Fargo NCC tournament.
Their final record moved to 14-13 overall and 9-10 in the NCC, while SDSU moved to 23-7 (13-6 NCC) and will do battle with the University of South Dakota in the next round on Friday night in Grand Forks, N.D.
It was the Huskies' third loss in a row to the Jackrabbits and easily the most painful. SDSU made their move quickly on the Huskies and never looked back. At the 14:00 mark, the Jackrabbits found themselves shooting 9-10 from the field and were leading 24-9. Freshman Katie Huschle hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 10, at 32-22 with 7:15 remaining in the half, but that was the closest SCSU would get all game.
In a sloppy game where loose balls were the norm, turnovers seemed to haunt both teams. The end total for the game was a combined 36.
Although the score doesn't show it, the Huskies actually had better defensive statistics. They finished with 12 steals and forced 21 Jackrabbit turnovers.
So, how did SDSU rack up 100 points? The shooting percentages were a one-sided scale in favor of the Jackrabbits. They shot 49 percent from the field and 46 percent from beyond the arc. The Huskies couldn't get anything to fall as they shot 32 percent from the field and had a miserable second half where they shot 25.6 percent from the field and went 0-6 from three-point territory. The Jackrabbits outmuscled the Huskies inside all game and out rebounded them 58-35.
"SDSU played extremely well," coach Lori Ulferts said. "They executed their offense perfectly and they outrebounded us. It's just tough to win there."
In her final game, senior Tina Schreiner hounded SDSU until the final buzzer. She finished with 22 points and eight rebounds, but was the only Husky in double figures. Senior Nicole Persby finished with eight points in her final game, as did freshman guards Huschle and Molly Jensen.
The Jackrabbits had five players that reached double figures. Brenda Davis led SDSU with 18 points. Melissa Pater racked up 17 points in only 16 minutes and teammate Shannon Schlagel had 17 points and 15 rebounds. Dianna Paved also grabbed 15 rebounds while adding 11 points and Brooke Dickmeyer finished with 13 points.
Although the preseason polls had the Huskies finishing third in the NCC and many expected another NCAA tournament appearance, Ulferts refuses to believe that this season was in vein.
"This season was a success overall," Ulferts said. "We were only out of two games all year and the rest were all close. We had some great things happen for us. Nicole (Persby) scored her 1000th point and many records were broken by Tina (Schreiner). It was a tough league this year."
The Huskies will only have a couple weeks of rest before they start their off-season workouts.
Bobby Hart can be reached at: [email protected]
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