VERMILLION, SD ? Sophomore Mallory Youngblut recorded her first career double-double to lead the North Dakota women's basketball team to a 68-55 victory over court-rival South Dakota in front of a crowd of 2,620 at the DakotaDome.
The guard from Davenport, Iowa boasted a career-high 20 points and 10 rebounds (all defensive). Fifteen of her points came off of a personal-best five three-pointers and she was also credited with a pair of steals which led to Sioux scores.
“Mallory, she was nuts today with her shot,” said head coach Gene Roebuck. “That one was at least 20-some feet out.
“That's the Mallory we know. She does that in practice and really stepped up today, big time.”
Also in double-figures for the Sioux was senior Kierah Kimbrough (F, Greenbush, Minn.) and junior Whitney Ledger (F, Bismarck, N.D.) who finished with 16 and 12 points, respectively.
“I'm really like this team right now,” said Roebuck. “There is no let down anymore.
“At the beginning of the year we were a Division II team, I think we're a Division I team now because we come out with the toughness and the hard-nose type play. I'm on their case and it doesn't bother them. They just suck it up and keep playing.”
Junior Alys Seay (G, Grand Forks, N.D.) racked in four clutch points. With just seconds left on the shot clock, she drove in for the layup to give UND the 15-15 tie in the first half. The basket put an end to the Coyote's control of the game.
“That was a huge play when Alys went to the basket with the shot clock running down,” said Roebuck. “And she made both of her free throws after a timeout. That's huge.”
USD's top post players, Bridget Yoerger and Jasmine Mosley topped the scoring. Yoerger tallied 19 points and had five assists, four steals and three blocks. Mosley notched 12 points.
North Dakota held USD to under 50.0 percent shooting in all categories.
UND finished 25-55 (45.5) from the field, 9-for-19 (47.4) from the three-point line, and 9-15 (60.0) shooting from the charity stripe.
The win gave the Sioux (11-10) a 2-0 advantage over the Coyotes (12-6) this season. UND leads the all-time series, 45-20.
“Today was a gutsy win on our part,” said Roebuck. “I was really proud of our players.”
After an offensive foul call quashed UND's attempt to score the first bucket of the game, the Coyotes used its two post players to take a 6-0 lead.
Kimbrough answered with a score of her own, but with a follow-up three-pointer by Annie Roche, the Coyotes moved into a seven-point (9-2) lead.
The lead quickly dwindled as Yougblut tucked a three-pointer between scores from Kimbrough and Ledger to help the Sioux to a 7-0 run and tie the game at 9-9 with 14:30 on the clock.
The game was knotted twice more before North Dakota pushed into the lead ? a lead it would hold onto for the remainder of the game.
Off the bench, Seay scored the equalizer with 11:35 on the clock to put the score at 15-15. Just over one minute later, Kimbrough scored from the free throw line to give UND the one-point lead.
In the ensuing minutes, the Coyotes were able to cut the margin to one, but could not equalize.
With the score at 21-20 in favor of the Sioux, Kimbrough scored under the basket and jumpstarted an 11-0 run for UND. She was joined by three-pointers from Jossy Bergan (G, Valley City, N.D.) and Youngblut and three additional points from Ledger.
Ledger's field goal was set up by a mid-court steal by Youngblut. She quickly moved the ball up the floor and passed on to Seay who then fed Ledger for the short jumper.
The USD scoring silence was broke by a basket from Yoerger. Her field goal at 1:22 was the first for the home team in nearly seven minutes.
With one more score from each end of the court, the Fighting Sioux headed into the locker-room with a 34-24 lead over the Coyotes.
In the first minutes of the half, both teams scored a pair of baskets from the three-point line. USD's six points helped it to stay on the heels of the Sioux and cut the lead down to six points.
“They didn't' get any closer than six, I know that,” Roebuck said. “If that's on our heels then I guess they did have a little run. They made some shots, but our players just came back.”
Bergan brought the second half, three-point total to five when she hit from the left side. She found the sweet spot again minutes later to give UND its biggest lead so far, a 50-38 advantage.
Just inside the 11-minute mark, Bagaason drove the middle of the lane and netted the ball for the 54-39 Sioux lead.
A slight 10-5 scoring advantage for the Coyotes pulled them within eight points of the Sioux this just under eight minutes to play. Roche scored twice from behind the arc and Mosley registered back-to-back buckets to move the scoreboard to 57-49.
The Sioux held USD to just one field goal in the final seven minutes of the game. A final 9-2 UND run took them to the 68-55 victory.
North Dakota is back in action tomorrow in Grand Forks. The Sioux will host Minot State for a 2 p.m., Saturday afternoon tip-off at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center.
- Go Sioux -
Game Notes: Guinn is now tied with Jamie Pudenz (1996-00) for the No. 8 spot in career games played. With the addition of her first rebound of the first half, Guinn became the sixth player in UND history to register 1,000 points, 400 rebounds, and 400 assists ... This marked the second game in a row and the second this week that Bergan has played every minute. The 5-foot-three point guard is just the 10th UND player since 1991 to register 40-plus minutes in a single game ... The last and only other time UND and USD have played on Jan. 31 was in 1998. On that date, the Sioux took a 109-49 victory over the Coyotes. It was the highest point tally against USD and the fourth time that UND crossed the 100-point line and won. All four of those wins were in Grand Forks ... Also in 1998, the Sioux recorded the most points against the Coyotes on the road when they took a 96-67 victory on Jan. 2 ...
