Sports
Ladyjacks coast past Thunderbirds
Matthew Semisch
02/10/2015
No matter what happens to the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) women’s basketball team checked off one of its goals for this season on Thursday when United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) came to Bottineau.
The Ladyjacks knew that, with a win over UTTC at the Woodshed, they would clinch a home game against the Thunderbirds in the first round of the NJCAA Region XIII tournament later this month. DCB can consider that mission accomplished after it downed UTTC 109-75 in the Mon-Dak Conference rivals’ second and final meeting of the regular season.
One of the biggest reasons’ for the Ladyjacks’ success on Thursday was the play of its guards. Sophomores Imani Scott and Chelsea Frazier ended the game with 45 and 38 points, respectively.
DCB now knows that it will host UTTC once more this season, this time in the postseason. A date and start time for the teams’ third meeting of the season had not been announced as of press time.
The winner of that game would then travel to Ironwood, Mich., to take on Gogebic Community College for the right to represent Region XIII at the NJCAA District F finals. The District F winner would then advance again to the national tournament.
As for Thursday’s game, though, Ladyjacks head coach Wayne Johnson was pleased with his team’s performance and its ability to accomplish one of its bigger goals for the season.
“You always feel good after a win,” he said, “and especially against a region opponent that can be as good what we played tonight.
“I thought we did some things better than we had been, and we’d talked about having better player and ball movement and I thought we did a good job in that regard. Imani was on fire, and we had a big game out of Chelsea again, and I thought offensively we played well.
DCB MEN DOWN UTTC
DCB’s men’s basketball team also played at home against UTTC on Thursday night. The Lumberjacks came up triumphant against the Thunderbird men, winning by an 85-76 count.
UTTC opened the game brightest, jumping out to an early 12-6 lead. DCB then clawed away at the Thunderbirds over the balance of the first half, but UTTC would go back to its locker room with a 41-36 halftime lead in tow.
The Jacks controlled much of the second half, though, outscoring UTTC 49-35 in the final 20 minutes of the game. DCB’s bench came up big, too, outscoring the Thunderbirds’ non-starters 33-3 in the game.
“It was pretty back-and-forth in that game tonight,” DCB head coach Brandon Colvin said, “and in the second half we cut the deficit real quick, and tonight showed that basketball is a game of runs and we had the last one.
“I thought we defended a lot better in the second half, too, and overall I thought the effort was good.”
DCB’s men (16-9) and women (18-6) visited Williston State on Monday night after press time in a game that had been pushed back from Sunday due to inclement weather. DCB’s men and women will both host Dawson (Mont.) on Wednesday.