Sports

Ladyjacks can't find wins on road trip

By Tyler Ohmann

01/22/2013

A road trip to Bismarck and Ellendale, N.D. recently wound up in a pair of losses for the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) Ladyjacks.

First on Thursday evening the Ladyjacks traveled to Bismarck to open up their MonDak regular season with a bout against Bismarck State College (BSC).

In the game the Ladyjacks out shot the Mystics 45 percent to 33 percent, and out rebounded them 48-35, but still fell 79-72, despite a comeback effort.

DCB trailed by 12 at halftime, because of what head coach Wayne Johnson said was a bad start.

“We really got of to a terrible start and we were down by 20 at one point in the first half,” Johnson stated.

The Ladyjacks battled back in the second half, using the three-point shot, which they were 9-of-19 (47 percent), to their advantage. DCB even took the lead with about five minutes left, but the Mystics rallied.

“I’ll give the ladies a lot of credit for their effort as we battled back. We then proceeded to miss a great break away opportunity and then turned the ball over in five of our next six possessions,” Johnson stated. “That was the critical junction of the game as the Mystics went on a 10-0 run.”

However, the Ladyjacks did turn the ball over 31 times, compared to only 13 for the Mystics.

Another factor for DCB was an injury to one of their strongest players, Shakira Walker. Walker injured her knee and played only nine minutes in the game.

“It appears she will be out for at least a couple of weeks so we are going to have to step up and make some adjustments on both ends of the court,” Johnson stated.

One player who did step up in the game was sophomore Josie Degagne, who had a team-high 22 points. Fellow sophomore Jackie Miller added 17 points, while freshman Tiffany Bradford had 10 points, and Megan Green had 13 rebounds and seven points.

Johnson thought that despite the loss, the Ladyjacks had a lot of positives in the game.

“We shot the ball very well and actually shot it well enough to result a in victory,” Johnson stated. “We did get a number of easy baskets versus their pressure and did a reasonable job on the boards.”

Having said that, they did lose, and he knows they have a lot to improve upon as they prepare for postseason.

“Three areas that really hurt us was our defensive play, our high number of turnovers and the number of fouls we committed,” Johnson stated. “They are an excellent free throw shooting team and one of our pre-game goals was to limit their attempts at the line. Obviously we were not successful, allowing too much penetration which led to unnecessary fouling. They certainly capitalized on their opportunities.”

The Ladyjacks moved on from Bismarck to Ellendale to take on Trinity Bible College. Things did not turn around for DCB in this game.

The Ladyjacks fell behind early, and wound up trailing by 21 at halftime. Both teams played evenly in the second half, but the Lions wound up the victors with a 72-51 win.

“We were not ready to play this evening but I will give Trinity a lot of credit. They certainly brought their game,” Johnson stated. “We struggled from the get go with the pace of the game and how we got organized.”

DCB was again bested in the turnover department, as they committed 27, while the Lions had only 13 in the game. Miller was the leading scorer for DCB with 16 points. Again though, the abscense of Walker was a factor according to Johnson.

“I thought we just played way too fast all night long. We had difficulty getting into our offense and it will take a bit of time to reorganize without Shakira,” Johnson stated. “We can do it, we are just a different type of a team.”

While they improved with their fouls, the Ladyjacks still struggled defensively in the contest.

“We had defensive issues again tonight but of a different variety. We did a better job of keeping our opponent off the foul line but allowed a season high three point output from an opponent,” Johnson stated. “We gave up too many ‘I dare you’ threes.”

Another leader for the Ladyjacks was Green, who had 10 points, and a team-high nine rebounds.

The pair of losses dropped DCB to 4-11 on the season. They next play at 6 p.m., Wednesday in Belcourt against the Turtle Mountiain Community College.

DCB also played last night at home against the North Dakota State College of Science, but scores and stats were unavailable by press time.