North Dakota State Athletics
9-7, 4-2Summit
Southern Utah
4-12, 2-3Summit
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Dakota State | 31 | 27 | 58 |
| Southern Utah | 28 | 31 | 59 |
Southern Utah Holds Off Late North Dakota State Rally in 59-58 Win
1/12/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CEDAR CITY, Utah--Southern Utah University held off a late rally by North Dakota State to post a 59-58 win in a Summit League women's basketball game played Monday, Jan. 11, in the Centrum Arena. The Thunderbirds snapped a five-game losing streak with the win.
North Dakota State (9-7, 4-2 Summit) is schedued to host South Dakota State (8-8, 4-2 Summit) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16, in the Bison Sports Arena. The Jackrabbits lost 67-64 at UMKC on Monday night. The NDSU-SDSU game will be broadcast by KVLY-TV (Fargo) and KSFY-TV (Sioux Falls).
The Bison scored the last eight points of the game, but missed a pair of shots in the final 17.3 seconds.
Southern Utah led 59-50 with 1:45 remaining on a pair of Caitlyn Sears free throws. Sears finished with 15 points and three steals.
Katie Birkel 's jumper cut the deficit to 59-52 with 1:35 left. Jill Zaruba would score the next four points including an offensive rebound to draw the NDSU to within 59-56 with 52.2 seconds remaining. Birkel had 12 points, four rebounds, four steals and three rebounds. Abby Plucker led the Bison with 13 points and three assists.
Birkel came up with a steal and Inger Hodgson made 2 of 2 free throws to close the gap to 59-58 with 46.2 seconds left.
Challis Pascucci scored 16 of her 18 points in the first half to keep Southern Utah (4-12, 2-3 Summit) ahead of North Dakota State in the first half. Pascucci had a career-high 15 rebounds and scored off of three offensive putbacks in the opening period. SUU held a 40-39 rebounding advantage.
The Thunderbirds went up 16-9 with 10:11 left on a Sears jumper. The game was tied four times overall and the lead changed hands on 10 occasions.
However, North Dakota State went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes and took a shortlived 17-16 lead when Birkel found Ashley Samuelson open for a three-pointer with 7:45 left. Samuelson had six points and nine rebounds.
The lead would change hands four more times after that, the last time coming at the first half buzzer when Birkel hit a 30-foot three-pointer to put NDSU ahead 31-28. No free throws were attempted by either team in the fast-paced opening period.
North Dakota State was hurt by 13 turnovers in the first half, but shot 50 percent from the field including 5 of 9 from the three-point line. The Bison made 33.3 percent from the field overall compared to 43.3 percent for Southern Utah. NDSU made only 1 of 14 from the three-point line in the second half.
After hitting its first four shots of the game, Southern Utah made only 40 percent from the field. The Bison forced three shot clock violations in the first half.
