Sports

Ladyjacks off to National Tournament

By Tyler Ohmann

03/11/2014

A second half surge gave the Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) women’s basketball team a 83-65 win last Sunday over Northe Platte Community College at the Woodshed, and earned the Ladyjacks their first ever berth in the national tournament.

“I don’t even know how to explain it, overjoyed,” said sophomore Leah Parizek. “It is an incredible feeling, we made history.”

For head coach Wayne Johnson, the win has been a long time coming. The Ladyjacks had advanced to the district title game four times, and this was the third time in the past four years.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Johnson said. “It was our fourth crack it, and when you’ve been knocking on the door, one of these times the door has got to open.”

“And when it opened today, it really seemed like it opened, the flood gates opened, and I thought we played with so much more confidence,” Johnson added.

DCB trailed for most of the first half, but hit 5-of-12 three pointer to keep themselves in the game. In fact, Johnson said that right at the end of the first half was the turning point in the contest.

“I thought the big part of the game was that we hit two big buckets right before halftime,” Johnson said. “We went from being eight down to being three down, and I thought that gave us a lift going into the locker room.”

That lift led to a second-half run for the Ladyjacks.

DCB shot better than 50 percent in the second half, rebounded better and held the Lady Knights to 25.6 percent shooting in the second half to open up a big lead.

“At halftime the vibe was great, it was awesome, and it all just started clicking,” Parizek said.

Their biggest lead came late in the second half as they parlayed a few turnovers into points, and went up by as much as 18 points.

It was smooth sailing for the last few minutes as the Ladyjacks preserved their lead, and eventually cut down the nets after the game.

“It feels awesome, and I’m really happy I could be a part of it,” Parizek said. “It’s all in the team, the team is great.”

Freshman Imani Scott was the leader for the Ladyjacks as she hit 6-of-10 from three-point range and finished with 32 points.

Savannah Bruce added 14 points and nine rebounds, and Parizek had 10 points, eight boards and three steals. Mary Jones had eight assists to lead the Ladyjacks.

Much like last weekend’s region tournament a strong bench performance also gave the Ladyjacks a spark.

“That helps a lot that we’re so deep in the bench,” Parizek said. “It’s nice that Whitney Brandvold comes and helps off the bench, she’s been big in the tournament play.”

Brandvold, a freshman who played for Bottineau High School, had six points and five rebounds on 3-of-4 shooting. She played nearly 12 minutes off the bench, and helped keep the Ladyjacks in the game in the first half.

“So many people stepped up, not only in the region tournament, but today again,” Johnson said. “Whitney had another really big impact on the game, Haley (Sabe) hit that big three off the bench, Shikaya (Chase) played great again, and we had Imani playing on one foot, Leah hit those two big threes to start the second half, it all really helped.”

Chase played more than 20 minutes off the bench and had six points and four boards.

The focus now for the Ladyjacks turns to the national tournament, which begins on March 17 in Overland Park, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City.

DCB will be one of 16 teams that play, and they couldn’t be more excited, though it is new territory for the college.

“We’re looking forward to it big time, but I have no idea what it’s going to be like because I’ve never been there,” Johnson said. “We were supposed to be going to see our granddaughter that was born in February, but that’s fine we’re excited about it.”

Parizek thinks that Sunday’s win will only help the Ladyjacks (15-17).

“It’s going to be really nice going into the national tournament with a little bit of confidence,” Parizek said.