ST. CLOUD, MINN. (Feb. 11, 2006)--The South Dakota women's basketball team (14-10, 2-7 NCC) dropped a 72-50 decision in North Central Conference play to fifth-ranked St. Cloud State (22-2, 8-2 NCC) at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud, Minn., Saturday evening.
In the first half, the score was as close for the first five minutes of play as Ashley Robinette (South Sioux City, Neb.) connected on a pair of free throws at 14:40 to cut the SCSU lead to 7-4.
After that, the Huskies went on a 10-3 run down to the 7:35 mark, when Meghan Woster (Sioux Falls, S.D.) hit the first of her three-straight baskets for the Coyotes that cut the Huskies lead to 17-6.
The SCSU lead dwindled to six, 21-15 at 5:58 on a jumper in the paint by freshman Bridget Yoerger (Hinton, Iowa). However, the Huskies quickly upped the lead to its largest margin of the half, 15 points, 30-15 on a three-pointer by Sascha Hansen with 2:42 left in the half.
The Huskies' Erica Quigley put an offensive rebound up and in with 38 seconds left in the period to make the halftime score, 35-19.
In the second half, USD continued struggling to get its shots to drop and stopping the Huskies post play.
SCSU quickly led by 20, 43-23 at 16:03 when Sascha Hansen dropped in two of her 15 points at 15:56 on a lay-up.
The Coyote's Vanessa Yanez (Wagner, S.D.) connected on her second three-pointer of the game at 14:03 to cut the lead to 17 points, 48-31. However, USD managed just two points over the next eight minutes until Yanez hit a three-pointer on an out-of-bounds play at 6:05 to make the Husky lead, 62-39.
SCSU's Kayla Rengel picked up a rebound and took the ball the length of the court at the 2:11 mark and gave the Huskies its largest lead of the game, 27 points, 72-45. USD then scored the final five points of the game to close out the contest.
USD was held to 25.8% (17-of-66) shooting from the field, including 28% (7-of-25) from three-point range. At the foul line, the Coyotes hit 9-of-12 attempts for 75%, but were outrebounded, 57-35. USD did tie its second lowest single season turnover mark of seven (Northern State, Nov. 22).
Yanez led the Coyotes with 15 points, while Yoerger and Woster added 12 and 10 points, respectively. Yoerger also added nine rebounds to lead USD.
St. Cloud State, who scored 32 points in the paint to 10 for USD, shot 41.8% (28-of-67) from the field. Beyond the three-point arc, the Huskies were 6-of-16 for 37.5% and were 66.7% (10-of-15) at the free throw line.
Rengel led all players with 18 points, while Hansen scored 15 points. Quigley finished with a double double of 15 points and 14 rebounds.
The Coyotes will wrap up its four-game road trip when they travel to second-ranked North Dakota on Thursday, Feb. 16.
