At SD State

[dufferole]

BROOKINGS, S.D. -- The North Dakota State women's basketball team fell short at South Dakota State, 89-74, on Saturday afternoon in the final game at Frost Arena in front of 3,768 fans.

The Bison secured the second seed in the Summit League Tournament for the second straight season and finished regular season play with a 19-10 (13-3 Summit) overall record. The Summit League Tournament is scheduled for March 8-12 in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Heaven Hamling paced the Bison with 23 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three. It marked her fifth 20-point game of the season. Elle Evans also added in 19 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three, while Abbie Draper grabbed a team-high seven rebounds with four points.

As a team, the Bison shot 44.8 percent (26-58) from the field and 50.0 percent (12-24) from three. NDSU also connected on 10-of-13 free throws.

After neither team led by more than nine points in the first half, South Dakota State (19-10, 13-3 Summit) finished the third quarter on a momentum-shifting 7-0 run capped off by a triple from Ellie Colbeck to make the score 67-58. The Jackrabbits then slowly pulled away in the fourth quarter stretching their edge into double digits, 83-72, following a jumper from Paige Meyer with 2:19 to play. NDSU wasn't able to get anything going the rest of the way and dropped the contest, 89-74.

[HerdBot]

Good warm up for when it really matters. The gap is closing

[bisonfan08]

Final score was a little misleading, this game was close throughout until the end, were only down 3 with 6:38 to go. Some really tough calls against NDSU throughout the game, Draper only got to stay on the court for 18 minutes and Elle for 28 minutes. Total fouls were 22 for NDSU to only 11 for SDSU, that being said, Meyer dominated us on the inside and Mathiowetz went 5-7 from 3. If we get the chance to play them again I think Jory is going to have a bit different gameplan to stop Meyer in the paint, 62% shooting for SDSU versus 45% for NDSU was the difference in this and that's because they had 48 points in the paint. It's a big ask but gotta slow down Meyer to have a shot to beat them.