Jacks down Bison women again, 86-51
BROOKINGS, S.D. – Despite a much more spirited effort from the Bison in Round 2, SDSU scored a knockout, defeating NDSU for the second time this season.
On senior night in front of 4,132 fans at Frost Arena, Megan Vogel led the Jackrabbits to an 86-51 lead over NDSU Friday in women’s basketball. Vogel scored a team-high 17 points. She is the lone senior on the SDSU roster.
Unlike three weeks ago at the when SDSU beat NDSU by 41, the Bison (12-11) showed plenty of life, but ran out of gas towards the ends of both halves.
“When you look at (SDSU’s) depth, they’re running 10 kids at you that run the floor hard, can all shoot the three and are all good players,” NDSU coach Amy Ruley said.
The Jacks (21-5) went on a 19-2 run to close the first half. In the middle of the second half the Jacks went on a 23-0 spurt to put the game away.
Early in the game, the Bison were right in the thick of things.
Lisa Bue scored 10 points in the first 10 minutes including back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Bison a five-point lead midway through the half.
“We really came out prepared and didn’t let ourselves get shaken by the crowd,” Bue said. “We took it to them and didn’t play scared.”
Fatigue and foul trouble set in after that as NDSU’s Jenna Lemnus, Danni Heintzelman and Jerri Penley each had three fouls at halftime and Amanda Girodat and Emily Moran each had two.
The Bison cut the 17-point deficit down to seven with 13 minutes remaining, but a layup by Jennifer Warkenthien and back-to-back 3-pointers by Vogel buried the Bison.
“I think that was the turning point just in general,” Girodat said. “We had some confidence, then she hit those two threes and it broke our backs a little bit.”
Bue led the Bison in scoring with 17 points. Emily Moran added 13 but had a rough shooting night, going just 5-23 from the field.
The Jacks received a balanced effort from their team as five players finished in double figures, including Ketty Cornemann with 14, Warkenthien with 10 and Courtney Grimsrud with 10 as well. Grimsrud paced the Jacks with 16 rebounds as SDSU outrebounded the Bison 58-38.
The Bison are on the road for the final two games of the season as they play New Jersey Tech on Thursday and IPFW on Saturday.