VALLEY CITY – The Valley City State women's basketball team dropped a non-conference contest to Dakota Wesleyan Sunday, 79-63, despite four ties and four lead changes in the game.
VCSU held its last tie with 5:41 left in the third quarter and trailed by just a point with 1:14 to go in the frame, but was unable to take over the lead late in Sunday's game. The Vikings drop to 6-8 on the season while Dakota Wesleyan improves to 10-3.
The Vikings held the Tigers to shooting just 33 percent in the first quarter of Sunday's game and held a 10-8 lead on a 3-pointer from
Ashlyn Diemert early. From there, the Tigers went on a 7-2 run to build a 15-10 lead after the first quarter.
The Vikings made every shot from the field through the first 5 minutes of the second quarter and used a 3-point play by
Madison Wilhelmi to trail 26-22 with 5:32 to go before halftime. After trailing 39-31 at the break, VCSU used a big third quarter shooting 64 percent to stay within reach. After a 41-41 tie with 7:10 to play in the third, the Vikings wouldn't allow the Tigers to pull away by more than four points.
VCSU's
Hailey Roberts brought the Vikings within a point, trailing 57-56 with 1:14 to go in the quarter, but turnovers and fouls allowed Dakota Wesleyan six points in the final minute of the third quarter. The Vikings went on a 6-minute scoring drought in the final quarter and could not recover down the stretch.
VCSU posted its second-best shooting percentage of the season Sunday, going 44 percent from the field (22-50), including 64 percent in the third quarter (7-12). The Vikings also shot 36 percent from 3-point range (8-22) and 92 percent from the free throw line (11-12). Dakota Wesleyan shot 48 percent on field goals (29-60), 30 percent on 3's (3-10) and 86 percent on free throws (18-21).
Dakota Wesleyan won the rebounding battle 42-19, including 18 on the offensive glass that helped the Tigers score 21 second chance points.
Nine Vikings scored in Sunday's balanced offense, led by Diemert who scored 16 points and added four assists and three steals for VCSU. Roberts scored 13 points, while
Ellie Braaten and
JayCee Richter each finished with seven.
Ellie Powell and
Rosie Anderson each pulled down four rebounds, and Powell added three blocked shots for the Vikings.
Five Tigers scored in double figures Sunday. Shalayne Nagel led all players with 18 points and eight rebounds while also posting two steals and one blocked shot for DWU.
UP NEXT: VCSU opens conference play against Dakota State on Friday, Jan. 12. The women's game will tip at 5:30 p.m. followed by the men at 7:30 p.m. at the Bubble.
