Herd hang on to the ball

Written by Daniel Gunderson Friday, 04 December 2009 08:00

The NDSU Women’s basketball team was humiliated Nov. 24 down in Minneapolis by the University of Minnesota 65-37.

It was an ugly display of basketball by a Division I team as they had 18 turnovers in the second half and shot 28.6 percent from the field going 6-21. Four of those shots were made from beyond the arc. The final stats did not look any better as the Bison combined for 35 total turnovers and only 31.4 percent shooting.

The Bison were home for two games over the Thanksgiving weekend as they hosted Ball State University and Denver University. If there was anything that the Herd needed to get back on track, it was a mini home stand.

The Bison were able to get back on track on Friday by beating BSU 65-57. Not helping in their task was the issue of health as freshman center Janae Burich was out for the contest.

In the first half, the Herd was led by junior Ashley Samuelson’s strong play as she dropped in NDSU’s first three baskets. Unfortunately, with 14:39 remaining, Samuelson picked up her second foul and only played a one more minute the rest of the half.

It affected the play of the Bison for the rest of the half. While sophomore Katie Birkel did an excellent job of scoring, producing nine points, she also had four of the team’s 13 first half-team turnovers.

The Cardinals went into the locker room with a 28-26 lead. The Herd was going to have to cut down on turnovers if they wanted to have a legitimate shot at a team that had bounced the University of Tennessee from the National Tournament the year before.

Head Coach Carolyn DeHoff obviously got to her players as the Bison only committed three second-half turnovers, compared to the 48 in the previous three halves. It also helped that Samuelson was able to play most of the second half and senior Inger Hodgson found her range. Those two combined for 24 of NDSU’s 39-second-half points.

Samuelson led all scores with 19 points, and also went nine for nine from the field, falling one shot away from registering for the NDSU record books. Hodgson added 13 and Birkel had 11 along with seven boards. 

Sunday afternoon in the Bison Sports Arena saw the Bison in action again, this time facing the Pioneers of the University of Denver. The Bison’s new-found ball control was key in their 62-50 victory.

Oddly enough, the game opened up with both teams turning the ball over on their inaugural possessions. The first half did not get much prettier as the Herd shot 26.5 percent from the field. They were also outrebounded 20-14 by the Pioneers.

The only reason the Bison were in the game at halftime was due to the fact that Denver committed 14 turnovers. NDSU thankfully retreated into the locker room only down one at 25-24.

Again the Herd came out of the locker room on a mission. The Bison shot 20 percent better in the second half and were able to cause 12 second-half turnovers. They also made sure Denver had no chance of getting back into the game as they went 17-18 from the charity stripe in the second half.

Denver was never able to overcome their 26 turnovers or their lack of boxing out on the defensive boards, as they gave up 14 offensive boards. The Bison were led by Hodgson’s 13 points, while senior Jill Zaruba had 12 and Samuelson went for 10.

The Bison also shot an amazing 95 percent from the stripe, going 19-20.

The two wins pushed the Bison’s overall record to 3-3 on the year before they go on the road to start the conference schedule.  The Bison will be playing Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on Saturday and then Western Illinois University on Monday.