Sports
DCB women drop three competitive games
Tyler Ohmann
02/19/2013
The Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) women’s basketball team dropped three close games as they near the end of the regular season. The first of the three losses came last Thursday as the Ladyjacks fell 65-61 to rival Bismarck State College (BSC).
DCB then fell by relatively narrow margins to Jamestown JV and Concordia JV over the weekend in Devils Lake.
The week began with the loss to the Mystics, though it didn’t look like the Mystics had much traction early on.
DCB started the game slow, but came on with a lot of energy and hit shots to take a 31-29 lead at halftime.
“It really seemed like we came out of the team room ready to play. I thought we were focused with just the right amount of intensity,” stated Ladyjacks head coach Wayne Johnson. “In spite of that we fell behind early. The ladies kept battling and had a great run to take the lead at half time.”
BSC again started out strong to begin the second half, but the Ladyjacks didn’t go away. DCB took the lead with two minutes left, but the Mystics wound up making more plays in the end, which resulted in a four-point victory.
Despite the end result, Johnson was pleased with a few things the Ladyjacks accomplished.
“We accomplished a number of things we thought we needed to get done tonight so that certainly was a positive,” Johnson stated. “We did a nice job keeping them off the boards and off the free throw. We knew those areas would be keys.”
“Unfortunately we also knew we had to take care of the basketball and our failure in that area was the most significant factor of the game,” Johnson added.
Jackie Miller led the Ladyjacks with 17 points and four assists. Sophomore Jordyn Sondrol had a strong outing with 11 points, a team-best 13 rebounds and six steals.
Leah Parizek added a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Josie DeGagne had 12 points.
The Ladyjacks dropped their second game of the week on Saturday as they fell 67-59 to the Jamestown JV Jimmies.
DCB played right with the Jimmies for most of the first half, but the Jimmies went on at 10-3 run to end the half and take a 34-26 halftime lead.
The Ladyjacks forced 23 total turnovers and that allowed them to remain in the game, despite shooting 29 percent from the field.
They were down by 19 midway through the second half, but cut the Jimmy lead to six at one point, before falling by an eight-point margin.
“We struggled shooting the ball and it’s still a game where made baskets count,” Johnson stated. “(The) two runs by the Jimmies made the difference.”
DCB got the majority of their points from the line as they made 16-of-22 from the charity stripe.
DeGagne led the Ladyjacks with 18 points and eight rebounds. Miller added 16 points and five assists, while Sondrol had seven points, seven boards and four steals.
“One area that I was pleased with was our ball handling,” Johnson stated. “We only turned the ball over 14 times and if we can continue that and shoot a bit better we will be in games with anyone.”
DCB did shoot better in the next game. In fact they had their best outing of the season making 30-of-60 shots, including 8-of-19 from three point range. However, it came in a losing effort as Concordia JV also shot well in an 89-78 win over DCB.
The Cobbers shot 14-of-27 (52 percent) from down town and made 17-of-21 free throws to keep the lead down the stretch.
“Our biggest disappointment was our defensive play,” Johnson stated. “Even though the Cobbers hit some tough shots at times, I thought we were often slow to get to our closeouts.”
The game was tied at 32 late in first half, but the Cobbers made a big run to the end half with a nine-point lead.
DCB battled back, as they have in their previous two games, but Concordia JV’s three-point prowess drowned the Ladyjacks.
DeGagne (25) and Miller (22) combined for 47 points in the loss. Megan Green added nine points, and Sondrol had a team-high seven rebounds in the 11-point loss.
The losses dropped the Ladyjacks to 10-15 overall on the season.
An important week looms for the Ladyjacks as they close out their regular season with MonDak games at Lake Region State on Wednesday and at home against Williston State on Sunday.
DCB also played at United Tribes Technical College last night, but scores and stats were unavailable by press time.