Celeste Beck
Whitnee Clayton
Amanda Hart
MITCHELL, S.D. – For the first 10 minutes and last five minutes of Wednesday’s game, the Dakota Wesleyan University women’s basketball squad looked like a team that might be able to give No. 10 Northwestern College a run for its money.
The Tigers went basket-for-basket with the Red Raiders to start the game and made a run to keep the game close at the end, but it was too little, too late, as Northwestern came away with a 75-62 win at the Corn Palace.
DWU made three 3-pointers to start the game and led 11-9 with 13:47 left in the first half after Amanda Hart hit a three. Elizabeth Lamb hit the Tigers’ first three of the game and Kim Johnson added a long-range shot to give the Tigers an 8-7 lead. A jumper by Celeste Beck put DWU up 15-13 with just over 10 minutes to play in the first half, but the Red Raiders responded with a 14-0 run to go up 27-15 with 6:18 left in the half. The Tigers went on a 6-2 run to make it an eight-point game, 29-21, but Northwestern pushed its lead back to 15, 40-25, at halftime.
The Red Raiders maintained their lead to start the second half, and made it a 20-point game, 57-37, with 11:21 left to play on a layup by Kendra De Jong. A three by Val Kleinjan made it a 23-point game with 8:22 to play, but Dakota Wesleyan wasn’t done yet.
The Tigers went on a 21-7 run that started with a pair of free throws by Brittany Hills at the 8:05 mark and ended with a three by Hart to make it a nine-point game, 71-62, with 51 seconds left, but it wasn’t enough. De Jong hit a pair of free throws and Karen Huston scored to push Northwestern lead back to 13 and the Tigers failed to score in the final minute of the game.
Beck finished with 14 points to lead Dakota Wesleyan (12-8, 3-7). Whitnee Clayton had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds and Hart added 10 points. Brittany Pritchard and Hills each had five rebounds and Elizabeth Lamb had four assists. The Tigers shot just 34.5 percent from the field, including 24 percent in the first half. DWU was 18-for-26 from the line and had 37 rebounds and 24 turnovers.
De Jong led all scorers with 26 points and she also had eight rebounds for Northwestern. Kleinjan hit three 3-pointers and had 12 points. Alli Dunkelberger and Kami Kuhlmann each had six assists. Kuhlmann, who is second in the GPAC in scoring, was held to five points. The Red Raiders shot 41.5 percent from the field, went 14-for-16 from the line and had 40 rebounds and 19 turnovers.
DWU is back in action Sunday, Jan. 15, when it hosts No. 14 Hastings at 4 p.m.
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