North Dakota State Women Wrap-Up Four Game Road Trip at Grand Canyon Sunday

Sunday, December 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

3 p.m.

North Dakota State

Grand Canyon

Photo by: Richard Svaleson

North Dakota State Women Wrap-Up Four Game Road Trip at Grand Canyon Sunday

12/20/2014 6:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Game 12: at Grand Canyon (3-7)
Sunday, Dec. 21 | 2 p.m. MT (3 p.m. CT)
GCU Arena (5,000) | Phoenix, Ariz.
Live Stats | Free Live Audio | Live Video
Radio: 740 "The Fan" (Jack Michaels, play-by-play), 2:40 p.m. CT airtime

Complete NDSU Notes (PDF) | Summit League Weekly Notes (PDF) | NDSU WBB on Twitter

Bison Wrap-Up Four Game Road Trip at Grand Canyon Sunday
        The North Dakota State women's basketball team (4-7) will look to snap a three game losing streak when it completes a four game road trip on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 2 p.m. MT (3 p.m. CT) at Grand Canyon University (3-7).

The Series Against Grand Canyon
        Sunday's showdown against the Antelopes in Phoenix will be the fourth meeting in the all-time series and the first meeting in the NCAA Division I era for both programs. The Bison are a perfect 3-0 in the series after defeating the Lopes in Fargo during the 2004-05 season, 91-50.

About the Antelopes
        Grand Canyon enters Sunday's contest at 3-7 overall after falling to No. 10 Louisville, 65-51, on Thursday, Dec. 18, at GCU Arena in Phoenix. The 'Lopes are 2-3 at home, 1-3 on the road and 0-1 at neutral sites this season.
        Through 10 games, Grand Canyon is led in scoring by redshirt-freshman Jessica Gajewski (Brisbane, Australia) with 11 points per game. Junior Cheyenne Hedrington (Champaign, Ill.) leads the Antelopes on the glass with 7.3 boards per game, and redshirt-junior Courtney Hayes (Las Vegas, Nev.) has a team-best 21 assists.
        As a team, GCU is averaging 56.5 points per game while its opponents are averaging 60.5 per game. The 'Lopes are being outrebounded, on average, 39.2 to 38.9.
        Grand Canyon is under the direction of eighth season head coach Trent May (Southern Nazarene, 1995). He has a 151-55 at Grand Canyon and a 267-121 career head coaching record.

Catching Up With The Bison
        The Bison are 4-7 heading into Sunday's tussle at Grand Canyon after dropping their past three contests at Northern Iowa (41-56), at New Mexico State (59-79) and at Cal State Fullerton (79-86). North Dakota State has not won a game since an 83-66 win over Mayville State on Dec. 8.
        Through 11 games, senior guard Brooke LeMar (Canyon Country, Calif.) leads the Bison and The Summit League in scoring with 18.6 points per game. Junior forward Holly Johnson (Minot, N.D.) is averaging 12.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and has a team-high 25 offensive boards, while fellow junior guard/forward Marena Whittle (Vermont South Victoria, Australia) is averaging 9.8 points and a team-best 7.7 rebounds per game to go along with 16 steals and 13 blocks. Junior guard Kahla Becken (Lino Lakes, Minn.) leads the team in steals with 18 takeaways.
        As a team, the Bison are averaging 68.4 points per game and allowing 75.0 ppg from their opponents. NDSU is being outrebounded, on average, 41.5 to 38.6.

Last Time Out: Late Run Not Enough as Bison Women Fall at Cal State Fullerton Friday, 86-79
        The North Dakota State women's basketball team (4-7) fell at Cal State Fullerton (4-6), 86-79, on Friday night, Dec. 19. It was NDSU's third consecutive defeat.
        Senior guard Brooke LeMar paced the Bison with 28 points on 10-for-20 shooting, while junior forward Holly Johnson pulled down a team-high eight rebounds and tallied 16 points. Junior guard Kahla Becken also reached double figures in the game, scoring 11 points, and had a team-best five assists.
        North Dakota State shot 48 percent (30-for-63) from the field and 7-for-18 (39 percent) from beyond the arc in the game, going along with a 12-for-18 (67 percent) mark from the free-throw line.
        Trailing 77-63 with 5:19 to go in the second half, North Dakota State went on an 11-2 run to trim the deficit to 79-74 after LeMar drilled a three with 2:46 remaining in the stanza. The Bison got within 83-79 after Johnson hit 1-of-2 free-throws with 29 seconds remaining, but that would be as close as they'd get the remainder of the game.
        Cal State Fullerton senior guard Chante Miles (Compton, Calif.) led all scorers in the contest, scoring 31 points on 12-for-17 shooting, to go along with a game-high eight assists.
        The Titans went 32-for-56 (57 percent) from the field and 9-for-15 (60 percent) from three-point range in the contest and made 13 of 19 free-throw attempts for 68 percent. Cal State Fullerton outrebounded the Bison, 37-30.

Last Time Out Against Grand Canyon: NDSU Women Overcome Slow Start to Speed Past Grand Canyon 91-50
        All 10 players scored including five in double-figures as the North Dakota State University women's basketball team completed its first season of Division I competition with a 91-50 victory over Grand Canyon University on Sunday, March 6, 2005, before a crowd of 1,176 at the Bison Sports Arena.
        North Dakota State finishes the season with a 26-1 record to achieve the third best winning percentage (.963) in NDSU women's basketball history. The only blemish was a 74-43 loss at TCU on Feb. 22. That overall record includes a 14-0 mark at the Bison Sports Arena as NDSU recorded their seventh perfect home ledger in school history and the first since the 1998-99 season.
        Katie Lorenz, a 5-foot-8 junior from Langdon, N.D., finished with a career-high 12 assists and scored 12 points to complete her third career "double-double". Johnson led all scorers with 17 points and added five rebounds, three assists and three steals in her final Bison Sports Arena appearance. Fellow senior, 6-4 center Leah Klabo netted 12 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots. Brenda Slyt contributed 12 points on the strength of a career-high 4-of-4 showing from the three-point line, while Danni Heintzelman had 11 points to spark a 29-point effort by the NDSU bench.
        After hitting only 3-of-12 to start the game, North Dakota State connected on 49.3 percent (33-67) from the field compared to 31.1 percent (19-61) for Grand Canyon. NDSU hit 42.1 percent (8-19) from the three-point stripe, while the 'Lopes cooled to 42.9 percent (6-14) from after three-point making one of their last eight attempts. The Bison held a 43-37 rebounding advantage and committed only eight turnovers. NDSU hit 73.9 percent (17-23) from the foul line, while GCU made 6-of-8 for 75 percent.

Breaking the 20-point Threshold
        Brooke LeMar has eclipsed the 20-point threshold five times this season after scoring more than 20 points nine times in 30 games last season. LeMar matched her career-high with 33 points against North Dakota on Dec. 6, posted 28 points at Cal State Fullerton Dec. 19, 25 in the regular season opener against Kent State Nov. 16, 22 against Mayville State Dec. 8, and 21 versus NJIT on Nov. 29 in the FAU Thanksgiving Tournament.

Bison in the Record Books
        Marena Whittle holds the career record for defensive rebounding average at NDSU with 5.0 boards per game and ranks eighth in overall career rebounding average with 7.2 per game. ... Brooke LeMar ranks fifth in career free-throw percentage, going 166-207 from the charity stripe for 80.2 percent, and holds the career minutes average record, playing an average of 35.5 minutes per game.

From Downtown!
        Kahla Becken leads NDSU in three-point field-goal percentage through 11 games, making 18 of 45 attempts for 40 percent while Brooke LeMar is shooting 33 percent from long range, going 17-for-51.

Defending the Perimeter
        NDSU is holding its opponents to just 30 percent shooting (57-190) from three-point range through 11 games. The Bison are averaging 6.5 made threes per game, compared to 5.2 for their adversaries.

Sharing the Basketball
        The Bison have tallied double-digit assists in eight of 11 games this season. NDSU dished out a season-high 18 assists against Mayville State, 17 against Milwaukee and at Cal State Fullerton, 15 against North Dakota and at New Mexico State, 12 against Kent State and at Mississippi State, and 14 against Northeastern.

Creating Offense From Defense
        The Bison have scored 204 points off turnovers in their 11 contests, an average of 18.5 points per game.

Getting to the Basket
        The Bison have scored 62 points off fast break baskets through 11 games, compared to just 30 points from their adversaries. NDSU is averaging 5.6 fast break points per game.

NDSU in the NCAA National Statistics (As of Dec. 19)
Relevant Team Statistics:
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game - 87th out of 343 (6.5/game) ... Free-Throw Percentage - 98th out of 343 (.704)

Relevant Individual Statistics:
Points Per Game - Brooke LeMar (47th out of 250, 18.6/game) ... Assists Per Game - Brooke LeMar (91st out of 250, 4.4/game) ... Free-Throw Percentage - Brooke LeMar (53rd out of 250, .867)

NDSU in The Summit League Statistics (As of Dec. 20)
Relevant Team Statistics:
Points - 5th (68.4/game) ... Rebounds - 6th (38.6/game) ... Assists - T-5th (13.0/game) ... Steals - 4th (8.2/game) ... Blocks - 4th (3.8/game) ... Turnovers - 3rd (16.2/game) ... Field-Goal Pct. - 6th (.390) ... Three-Point Field-Goal Pct. - 6th (.323) ... Free-Throw Pct. - 4th (.704)

Relevant Individual Statistics:
Brooke LeMar - Points: 1st (18.6/game), Assists: 3rd (4.4/game), FT Pct.: 3rd (.867), Steals: 6th (1.5/game) ... Marena Whittle - Rebounds: 4th (7.7/game), Defensive Rebounds: 3rd (5.9/game), Blocks: 6th (1.2/game) ... Kahla Becken - Steals: 5th (1.6/game) ... Holly Johnson - Defensive Rebounds: 4th (5.4/game), Rebounds: 5th (7.6/game), Offensive Rebounds: 7th (2.3/game) ... Emily Spier - Blocks: 8th (0.9/game) ... Liz Keena - Offensive Rebounds: 9th (2.1/game)

NDSU Women's Basketball Signs Two High School Standouts on Early Signing Day
        North Dakota State women's basketball head coach Maren Walseth announced Wednesday, Nov. 12, the signing of high school standouts Kennedy Childers and Megan Gamble to National Letters of Intent to attend North Dakota State University and play basketball beginning in the fall of 2015.
        Childers, a 5-foot-9 guard from West Des Moines, Iowa, has enjoyed a standout prep career at Iowa 5A powerhouse Dowling Catholic High School.
        A three-star athlete who was the 31st-ranked guard in her position by ESPN, Childers has helped Dowling Catholic to two 5A state championship appearances and one state championship. She was limited to only seven games her junior season due to injury.
        Childers has also excelled in the classroom, having earned Academic All-Conference for the Central Iowa Metropolitan League the past two seasons and Presidential Honor Roll honors each semester at Dowling Catholic.
        Childers played AAU basketball for Kingdom Hoops Elite. This past summer she helped her team win the 2014 USJN National Championship in Augusta, Ga.
        She is the daughter of Chris and Kris Childers.
        Gamble, a 5-foot-7 guard from Omaha, Neb., is a two-time all-state honorable mention selection at Central High School.
        A three-year starter for Central, she helped her team to a Class A state championship appearance in 2012 and a third-place state finish in 2013. Gamble averaged 13 points per game and dished out five assists per game during her junior season. The 5-foot-7 guard also earned all-Metro Team accolades and was selected as a team captain twice by her teammates.
        She is the daughter of Teri Murphy and Dexter Dawson.

Bison Ninth in Summit League Preseason Poll
        The North Dakota State University women's basketball team was picked ninth in The Summit League preseason poll released Tuesday, Oct. 7, by the league office.
        South Dakota State was selected to capture the 2014-15 Summit League women's basketball championship after winning its third consecutive regular season title a year ago. The Jackrabbits collected 27-of-32 first-place votes and 513 points in a vote of the league's head coaches, SIDs and select media.
        South Dakota, last season's tournament champion, earned four first-place votes and 420 points to place second in the poll. Regular season runner-up IUPUI was in third place followed by Western Illinois in fourth with the final first-place tally. Denver, which finished second at the tournament a year ago, came in fifth while Fort Wayne placed sixth. Oral Roberts, which returns to the league for the first time since 2011-12, Omaha and the Bison rounded out the poll.

Preseason Honors
        Senior guard Brooke LeMar, the reigning Summit League Newcomer of the Year and a second team all-league selection in 2013-14, was named to the preseason Summit League first team after averaging 15.1 points and 5.3 assists per game last season.

NDSU Women's Basketball to Appear on Midco Sports Network Twice During Regular Season
        The Bison will have a pair of Summit League contests carried on Midco Sports Network and ESPN3 through the league's television package. The home game at Scheels Arena on Jan. 4 against league rival South Dakota State and the road contest at South Dakota on Jan. 15 will be broadcast.

Head Coach Maren Walseth
        Maren Walseth was named the 10th head women's basketball coach in NDSU history Monday, April 14, 2014.
        Walseth joined the Bison after spending seven years as an assistant coach at Big Ten power Penn State University in State College, Pa., where she helped the Lady Lions to three Big Ten championships, four NCAA tournament appearances and two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances.
        At Penn State, Walseth was primarily responsible for coaching the post players while also playing a significant role in recruiting and opponent scouting efforts. She was the lead academic liaison for the Lady Lions and coached 32 Academic All-Big Ten recipients.
        Prior to becoming an assistant at Penn State, Walseth spent three years as an assistant coach at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. While at Navy, she assisted with recruiting as well as on-court player development and scouting, and was also the academic liaison for the Midshipmen.
        A native of Bloomington, Minn., Walseth was a two-time All-Big Ten selection and a three-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree as a forward at Penn State from 1997-2002. She was also a key member of the 2000 Lady Lion team that advanced to the Final Four and claimed the Big Ten conference championship. Walseth also was a member of the 1998 WNIT championship team. She graduated from Penn State in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in communications.
        Walseth was drafted by the Sacramento Monarchs in the third-round of the 2001 WNBA draft and spent four years playing professionally. She played for the Washington Mystics of the WNBA in 2002 before spending two years playing professionally in France. Walseth also spent a season with the Women's National Basketball League's (NWBL) Colorado Chill.
        Walseth's sister, Annika, played for NDSU during the 2007-08 season.