After a three straight conference losses, the Dakota Wesleyan University women's basketball team knew it needed a win Sunday to get back on track.
The Tiger women stopped their three-game losing skid with a 69-50 win over Nebraska Wesleyan University Sunday afternoon at the Corn Palace.
DWU is 10-11 overall and 3-6 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference after the loss.
"We needed to win," DWU coach Aaron Kahl said. "The team's worked pretty hard the past couple days. We needed to get a win, and hopefully we can build on this Wednesday."
Allison Johnson hit two threes in the first three minutes of the game to help Dakota Wesleyan to a 7-2 lead early in the game. The Prairie Wolves closed the gap to two, 7-5, but Ashley Johnson hit a three-pointer to spark a 13-2 DWU run for a 22-10 lead for the Tigers.
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Nebraska Wesleyan answered with a 6-0 run of its own, but Jessica Deinert started and ended a 14-0 Tiger run with three-pointers to give DWU a 36-18 lead at the half.
"We knew what we needed to do," DWU senior Sarah Mortenson said. "We worked on a lot of their offensive stuff and the last couple of weeks we've been focusing on our defense regardless of what they do. We've just been putting it all together and it clicked."
The Tigers took advantage of several turnovers and a Maggie Malloy steal to go on a 14-2 run early in the second half to create more separation with a 51-24 lead. Dakota Wesleyan was able to extend its lead to as much as 30 points on several different occasions.
The Prairie Wolves ended the game on a 22-11 run over the last 9:33 of the game, but it wasn't enough to catch up to the Tigers. Nebraska Wesleyan dropped to 3-12 overall and is still winless at 0-8 in the GPAC.
Ashley Mailey led a balanced Tiger offense with 13 points and seven rebounds. Allison Johnson added 12 points, Ashley Johnson and Sarah Mortenson each chipped in with 10 and Heidi Lusk added nine points off the bench.
"Anytime we can get balanced scoring, that makes the team harder to defend," Kahl said. "We took (NWU) out of stuff they wanted to do."
Denae Becker was the only player in double figures for Nebraska Wesleyan with 14 points. Sadie Struebing had seven rebounds.
The Tigers are home again Wednesday when they host Briar Cliff at 6 p.m.
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DAKOTA WESLEYAN 69
NEBRASKA WESLEYAN 50
Nebraska Wesleyan (3-12, 0-8)
Katy Golden 0-3 5-6 5; Sadie Struebing 3-5 0-0 6; Ashley Bordovsky 0-6 0-0 0; Kelsie Woodard 2-5 0-0 4; Ashley Hostert 1-3 0-0 3; Hannah Marshall 0-0 0-0 0; Char Mae McLean 0-3 0-0 0; Stacie Goracke 2-4 0-0 6; Kristina Gould 2-4 1-1 6; Amy Stratbucker 0-1 0-0 0; Stacey Coufal 1-2 0-0 2; Maggie Packard 1-2 2-2 4; Denae Becker 6-9 2-2 14. Totals 18-47 10-11 50.
Dakota Wesleyan (10-11 3-6)
Angela Noteboom 0-5 0-0 0; Ashley Mailey 4-6 5-6 13; Allison Johnson 5-12 0-0 12; Ashley Johnson 2-2 5-6 10; Sarah Mortenson 2-6 5-6 10; Heidi Lusk 3-6 2-2 9; Ashley Pommer 0-0 0-0 0; Jessica Bartscher 0-1 0-0 0; Emily Bastian 0-1 0-0 0; Jessica Deinert 3-8 0-0 8; Maggie Malloy 1-3 3-8 5; Marie Olson 0-4 2-2 2. Totals 20-54 22-30 69.
Halftime score: NWU 18, DWU 36. Three-point goals: NWU 4-9 (Goracke 2-2), DWU 7-19 (Al. Johnson 2-6, Deinert 2-4). Rebounds: NWU 35 (Struebing 7), DWU 33 (Mailey 7). Turnovers: NWU 31, DWU 18. Assists: NWU 12 (Hostert 3), DWU 15 (Malloy, As. Johnson 3). Steals: NWU 8 (Golden 2), DWU 20 (Malloy 4). Blocks: NWU 6 (Struebing, Packard 2), DWU 2 (Olson 2).
