Article

Women's Woes Continue

MSU loses a close contest to No. 1 North Dakota Thursday; drops a heartbreaker to No. 15 South Dakota despite leading most of the game.

by Andrew Miller

Issue date: 1/30/07 Section: Womens Sports

The North Central Conference takes no prisoners, which spells bad news for a Minnesota State women's basketball team in desperate need of a win.

After a narrow 84-76 loss to No.1 North Dakota on Thursday night, the Mavs watched a close one slip away Saturday night, losing to No.14 South Dakota 66-63 before a home crowd of 3,023.

The Mavericks stymied the Coyotes (15-4 overall, 2-3 NCC) early on with forceful defense and jumped out to a 10-point lead after the opening five minutes. MSU held USD to a 28.6 percent clip in the first half to grab a 28-24 halftime advantage.

In the second-half, the Mavs' overzealous defense put USD on the free-throw line for 25 attempts and they connected on 21. For the game, USD made 28-of-36 free throws compared to MSU's 11-of-15. USD's Shannon Daly racked up 17 points thanks to shooting 13-of-14 from the charity stripe.

"When anybody scores 28 points from the free-throw line, your chances of winning are tough," said Mavericks head coach Lori Fish.

Trailing by three points with 13 seconds remaining, the Mavericks were able to call a timeout to design a three-point opportunity for sophomore guard Heather Johnson. Johnson was unable to shake her defender, leaving freshman point guard Tiffany Moe with a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer.

In their Thursday match-up with UND (22-1 overall, 5-0 NCC), the Mavericks faced the conference's most potent offense. Despite containing the Sioux's sophomore forward Kierah Kimbrough - who had won four-consecutive NCC Player of the Week honors - the Mavericks were exposed by junior center Ashley Langen, who put up 25 points and 11 rebounds.

Mavericks' sophomore guard Heather Johnson connected on 6-of-9 three-point attempts en route to a career-high 29 points. Johnson may have answered Coach Fish's calling for a consistent scorer - something the team has lacked all season.

"I do want to step up and be that person," Johnson said.

UND proved their dominant post-presence with 42 points in the paint and a 36-24 rebounding advantage.

"I thought in the first-half we played behind and kept them off the block and I thought that was very effective," said Fish. "But when you play that kind of size, you wear down."

The Mavericks (13-8 overall, 1-5 NCC) play at Minnesota-Duluth 6 p.m. Thursday host St. Cloud State 2 p.m. Saturday.

Andrew Miller is the Reporter Editor in Chief