VERMILLION, S.D.—The University of South Dakota women's basketball team will host North Dakota Friday (Feb. 5) and North Dakota State Saturday (Feb. 6). Both games will start at 6 p.m.
 
USD's season record was leveled to 8-8 in the Jennies Classic at Warrensburg, Missouri, last weekend as the Coyotes lost to Division I schools Wichita State, 58-49, and Oklahoma City, 60-59. Sophomore Karrie Wallen, scoring 12 points followed by a season high 24 points was named to the All-Tournament team.
 
Center Deb Petersen missed the tournament because of flu complications and is questionable for this weekend. That allowed junior Carol Finley to draw her first starting assignments and she responded with 20 rebounds and 15 points.
 
"Finley did a fantastic job," said USD coach Mary Zimmernan. "But overall it was a disappointing weekend. We played very aggressive defensively but couldn't get the ball in the hoop either night in the second half including free throws. We lost our composure as well as our second half leads.
 
"North Dakota has been coming on lately and North Dakota State (13-4) is tall and quick. We'll definitely have to be ready to play."
 
The Sioux beat USD, 57-56, in Grand Forks Jan. 8. NDSU took two games from UND last week, winning 62-60 Thursday in Grand Forks and 69-53 Saturday at Fargo.
 
Senior Renee Steeve, who recently became the Cooytes all-time leading scorer, now has 1,232 career points and continues to lead USD in scoring, averaging 12.0 points.
 
Steeve also has a team high 35 steals and 49 assists. Karrie Wallen is scoring 11.9 points per game. Carol Finley is tops in rebounding with 7.0 a game. Deb Petersen leads in both free throw percentage (.787) and field goal percentage (.477).