Sports

Ladyjacks drop games to Tetons, Mystics

By Tyler Ohmann

02/14/2012

Losses to Williston State and Bismarck State over the past week dropped the Dakota College at Bottineau women’s basketball team to 1-6 in the MonDak Conference and 13-14 overall.

The Ladyjacks have lost their last five against conference opponents, but coach Wayne Johnson knows they are at least improving.

“This certainly was a great improvement over the first time we played the Tetons,” Johnson said of the loss to Williston State last Monday night in Williston. “We did a much better job of taking care of the basketball and did a nice job of getting to the free throw line.”

He was, however, less enthusiastic about a couple of areas for the Ladyjacks in the 71-56 defeat at the hands of the Tetons.

“Two areas of concern were our shooting percentage around the basket and the fact that they slaughtered us on the boards,” Johnson stated. “We had to gamble some with our defensive game plan and I thought it was fairly successful with the exception of the rebounding.”

The Ladyjacks trailed by only two with about eight minutes remaining in the second half, but the Tetons went on a 19-6 run to close out the Ladyjacks.

“Overall we can’t be upset as we played well enough for most of the game to give ourselves a chance against a very strong team,” Johnson stated. “It’s a situation again where we need to get things done on a more consistent basis.”

Shakria Walker led the Ladyjacks with 17 points. Freshman Jordyn Sondrol also played well grabbing a team-high eight rebounds and swiping five steals.

Jackie Miller was the only other Ladyjack in double figures with 13 points. She also added seven rebounds and three assists.

The Ladyjacks suffered a similar result in an 82-64 loss to Bismarck State on Thursday evening in Bismarck.
The Jacks shot a season-worst 13 percent from beyond the arc and the Mystics shot an impressive 44 percent from the same distance.

“The old basketball saying of ‘you live by the three, you die by the three’ came true tonight,” Johnson stated. “We had our poorest three point shooting night of the year, and had our poorest night in defending the three.”

“The three has been a big part of our offense all year and it needs to go for us to be effective offensively,” Johnson continued. “We lead the conference in defending the three and that has been a strength all year. Tonight we had let downs in both areas.”

Walker was again a bright spot for the Ladyjacks as she had 23 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

Sondrol nearly had a double-double with 11 points and nine boards. Miller finished with 13 points as the only other DCB player in double digits.

Johnson was still impressed with some of the things the Ladyjacks did despite the losing result.

“In spite of our poor shooting tonight I thought we did some things well on the offensive end of the court,” Johnson stated. “We handled their pressure fairly well, we passed to the open player well, and we made some hard cuts offensively. We also had 19 offensive rebounds.”

Johnson also identified a couple of key things the Ladyjacks will need to do in the post season, and believes they can do just that.

“For us to have success in March we need to understand the urgency and defend to our capabilities as a team,” Johnson stated. “We have a limited number of practices and three tough games to help us prepare for tournament action. We can do it.”

DCB will play only one game this week as they host United Tribes Community College at 6 p.m., Thursday at the Woodshed. They will then close out their regular season schedule with home games against Lake Region State College and Williston State next Monday and Thursday respectively.