 Elizabeth Lamb |
 Amanda Hart |
 Kim Johnson |
MITCHELL, S.D. – It looked like the Dakota Wesleyan University women’s basketball team was going to cruise to a win over Dordt College early in the game Wednesday night.
The Tigers led 14-0 and held the Defenders scoreless until the 13:44 mark of the first half, and pushed their lead to 21 – 21-2 – with 11:16 left in the half. But Dordt hung around, and it eventually took a three and a free throw by Amanda Hart to lift Dakota Wesleyan to a 54-50 win at the Corn Palace.
The win puts the Tigers a game and a half ahead of Dordt and in eighth place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. DWU is 15-12 overall and 6-11 in the league and the Defenders are 10-16 and 5-13 in the GPAC. The top eight teams earn a berth in the postseason tournament. The Tigers are two games behind seventh-place Doane (12-10, 8-9).
The Tigers’ offense slowed down in the second half, but they still led by 10, 50-40, with 8:20 to play. But Kayla Broekhuis hit a three to spark a 10-0 Dordt run that spanned nearly seven minutes. Brianna Spronk tied the game at 50 with 1:51 left to play, but Hart hit a three with 1:11 remaining and the Defenders missed a pair of layups and a three to give the ball back to the Tigers. Hart hit a single free throw with 21 seconds left to put DWU up by four and that was all the cushion the Tigers needed.
DWU was red hot to start. Kim Johnson hit a three to spark the Tigers’ 14-0 run, which saw five different players score. Elise Maresh got the Defenders on the board with a jump shot, but Hart hit her first three of the game to make it a 15-point game, 17-2, with 13:31 left in the first half. Elizabeth Lamb scored two buckets to make it a 19-point game, 21-2, before Dordt scored again.
After Lamb’s second basket, the Defenders went on a 15-7 run to make it a 12-point game, 29-17, with 3:34 left in the half. Lamb hit a three and later hit a free throw to push the lead back to 16, 33-17, with 1:16 left in the half, and DWU led by 14, 33-19, at halftime.
Dordt went on a 9-4 run to start the second half and cut DWU’s lead to 10, 37-27, with 17:15 to play, but the Tigers answered with a 9-0 run that included a three by Celeste Beck to make it a 19-point game, 46-27. From the 13:36 mark until Dordt tied the game at 50, the Defenders went on a 23-4 run to force Hart’s last-second three and challenge the Tigers for the win.
Lamb finished with a game-high 17 points – 15 of which came in the first half – for Dakota Wesleyan. Johnson added 10 points and Hart finished with seven, including two threes. She is one 3-pointer shy of tying the school’s single-season record. Pritchard pulled down six rebounds and Brittany Hills had four assists for DWU, which shot 37.7 percent from the field – 28 percent in the second half. The Tigers hit seven threes, went 7-for-12 from the line and had 17 turnovers.
Broekhuis finished with 14 points – four 3-pointers – to pace Dordt. Jessica Jelsema and Jaimie Kok each added nine points and Kara Van Dyke finished with seven rebounds. The Defenders shot 34 percent from the field, hit eight 3-pointers and went 6-for-11 from the line. They held a 37-35 advantage on the boards and had 19 turnovers.
Dakota Wesleyan plays its last home game of the season Sunday, Feb. 12, when it hosts Nebraska Wesleyan University at 2 p.m. at the Corn Palace. Sunday is also the last home game for the Tigers’ two seniors – Pritchard and Shannon Vander May.
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