DWU women beat York College 90-60

The Dakota Wesleyan University women’s basketball team came out on fire as it flushed York College 90-60 Wednesday night at the Corn Palace in Mitchell.

Behind good three-point shooting, the Tigers jumped out to a 15-2 lead in the first five minutes of the game.

“We haven’t practiced well the last few days, so we just wanted to come out and start hot,” said junior guard Amanda Hart, who scored 15 points and brought down six rebounds for DWU. “I think once a person starts hitting shots, we all get on a roll. Once we get post touches our outside game really opens up a lot, so it’s really a credit to our post.”

By halftime, DWU had expanded its lead to 59-23, which was aided by converting on 9-of-16 3-point field goals and shooting 23-of-42 from the floor.

The DWU offense cooled off in the second half, only managing to go 9-of-25 from the field, but the lead it built was insurmountable.

Along with Hart, three other Tigers scored in double digits. Guards Celeste Beck and Taylor Piper finished with 10 and 15 points respectively, while forward Kim Johnson was the game’s leading scorer with 21.

“I really feel like we have eight different kids who can lead us in scoring on any given night,” said DWU head coach Jason Christensen.

While there is no doubt that the Tigers’ hot hand won them the game, their defense was suffocating and forced York to finish the game with a less than stellar 37.3 field goal percentage.

“If we would have missed every shot and not made any at the 16:24 mark when they called a timeout, we would have been down 2-0,” said Christensen, referring to the first half of the game. “You have to play defense because there will be nights where you don’t shoot the ball very well.”

Marisa Maher led the Panthers with 19 points.

DAKOTA WESLEYAN 90,

YORK COLLEGE 60

DWU (3-0, 0-0 GPAC)

Elizabeth Lamb 1-7 2-2 5, Taylor Piper 6-13 4-6 16, Amanda Hart 5-11 1-2 15, Brittany Hill 2-4 2-4 6, Kim Johnson 8-10 1-3 21, Lexie Christensen 1-2 0-0 3, Michaela Erickson 0-0 0-0 0, Celeste Beck 4-9 1-2 10, Skyler Heyden 0-2 1-2 1, Kristen Binger 0-1 1-2 1, Taylor Kuhn 0-0 0-0 0, Katie Johnson 2-4 1-2 5, Katelynn Runge 0-0 0-0 0, Shekela Quarles 2-2 0-0 4, Abbey Fujan 1-2 1-2 3. Totals: 32-67 15-27 90.

YORK (1-2)

Courtney Swope 2-5 1-2 5, Alyssa Becker 2-5 1-2 5, Marisa Maher 7-10 2-3 19, Sara Lincoln 3-10 2-2 9, Taylor Runyan 3-6 3-4 10, Courtney Hamitt 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Peterson 1-3 0-0 2, Ebony Carther 1-6 0-0 3, Talea Struck 0-0 0-0 0, DeLaney Ortega 0-5 0-0 0, riel Lundstrom 0-0 0-0 0, Alexandria Payne 3-6 0-0 7, Damesha Ellison 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 22-59 9-13 60.

3- point goals: DWU 11-23 (Hart 4, Ki. Johnson 4, Christensen 1, Lamb 1, Beck1), YORK 7-20 (Maher 3, Payne 1, Carther 1, Runyan 1, Lincoln 1). Rebounds: DWU 40 ( Lamb 6, Hart 6), YORK 40 (Runyan 8, Maher 7). Assist: DWU 19 (Piper 6), YORK 11 ( Lincoln 4). Turnovers: DWU 15, YORK 27. Total Fouls: DWU 12, YORK 18. Technical Fouls: None.

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