This past week, the North Dakota State Women’s Basketball team played rivals, UND and SDSU. NDSU won against UND 101-85 and fell short of SDSU by seven points in a final score of 65-58.
South Dakota State
The game could’ve arguably gone either way, especially in the third and fourth quarters of the game. Heaven Hamling had a game-high 18 points, reaching 1,500 career points, and ranking 7th on the school’s all-time scoring list.
The first half of the game consisted of back-and-forth banter for the ball. With less than a minute left on the clock in the second quarter, Abby Graham scored for NDSU and 15 seconds later, Brooklyn Meyer got the two points right back for SDSU. North Dakota State was up by one point at halftime, 27-26.
Abby Schulte started the third with a layup to add points to the NDSU side of the scoreboard. The Bison started to fall but was brought back up to breakeven with Abbie Draper’s free throw midway through the quarter. SDSU came back and got up by nine points at the end of the quarter, thanks to three free throws from Meyer. In the final seconds, Hamling got a rebound off of a Jackrabbits miss and led the fastbreak, leading to a jump shot at the buzzer.
In the final quarter, neither team was giving up. NDSU went on a 11-3 run and was only down by two, with 3:20 left on the clock. This was followed by Jackrabbit, Tori Nelson, scoring a layup 30 seconds later. Ellie Evans followed by making four free throws, to bring the score back to even at 57. The clock was running out, and multiple free throw opportunities showed up for the Jackrabbits, thus clenching their close win of 65-58.
UND
With almost 3,000 fans watching in Grand Forks at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, the Bison claimed victory over the Fighting Hawks. Ellie Evans scored a career-high 33 points shooting 10-of-16 from the field and 11-of-12 from the free throw line. Evans also recorded 10 rebounds, a game-high. Her 33 points put her eighth for most points in a single game in NDSU history.
Going into the second frame with a one-point lead, 17-16, NDSU got moving with a 19-4 run over UND. With 04:22 left in the second, Miriley Simon made a three to push the Bison lead to 18.
Starting the second half with a nine-point lead, 47-38, UND got to work with Kiera Pemberton cutting the Bison lead to two after a made layup. Right as she scored, Hamling got hands on the ball for a fast break to get three points right back for NDSU. As the quarter carried on, UND and NDSU had free throws back and forth, still keeping NDSU up by 10.
The Bison pushed through the beginning of the fourth, still keeping the point deficit in the same point range. With less than eight minutes left on the clock, Hamling and Schulte both buried three-pointers. Towards the end of the frame, NDSU received multiple opportunities for points at the free throw line, with contributing points at the end from Hamling, Schulte, and Leah Mackenize. NDSU finished off the Fighting Hawks in the 4th and took the win by 16 over UND, 101-85.
NDSU takes action again on Thursday in Kansas City.