LAWRENCE, KAN. – The Valley City State women's basketball team took a 65-56 victory over Northern New Mexico University Friday night to open play at the Haskell Indian Nations University Classic.
 
VCSU improves to 5-2 on the season, marking its best start since head coach Vanessa Johnson's first season with the Vikings in 2017-18. Northern New Mexico drops to 4-3 overall. The Vikings play two more games at the weekend tournament, including a 5 p.m. game against Haskell on Saturday.
 
The game remained close early on, with neither team leading by more than five points in the first 18 minutes of the game.  With under two minutes until halftime, VCSU scored nine unanswered points, including four by Elyse Hebrink, to pull away with a 30-19 advantage at halftime.
 
VCSU maintained its double-figure lead with the help of seven third quarter points from Olivia Backus. Down the stretch, a 3-pointer from Ashlyn Diemert gave the Vikings its largest lead of the game at 61-43 with 7:59 to play. Northern New Mexico then took a 13-2 run but it wasn't enough as VCSU held on for the 65-56 win.
 
VCSU shot 43 percent on field goals Friday (21-49), 42 percent on 3's (8-19) and 63 percent from the free throw line (15-24). Northern New Mexico shot 34 percent from the field (20-59), 21 percent on 3's (3-14) and 87 percent on free throws (13-15).
 
VCSU held a 47-28 rebounding advantage, paced by eight boards from Tilda Mauritzson and six from Braaten.
 
Diemert all players in scoring with 17 points while Backus added 11 points and three blocks Friday. Hebrink totaled nine points, all of which were scored in the first half. Braaten and Mauritzson each added eight points, and Abby Aslesen scored seven. Braaten also dished a team-high six assists for VCSU.
 
Northern New Mexico was led by Ethena Silva who totaled 10 points, five steals, five rebounds and two blocks.
 
UP NEXT: VCSU faces Haskell Indian Nations University on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Lawrence, Kan.