Bumpy road for 'Rockers in Dickinson

By Dustin Monke,

The Dickinson Press

At this rate, Guy Fridley may want to start praying every team left on the Dickinson State women’s basketball schedule finds its way into the NAIA Division II top 25 poll.

After having good luck against ranked teams early in the season, the Blue Hawks may have one-upped themselves and knocked 25th-ranked South Dakota Mines out of the national poll for good Friday night.

“It’s an easy motivation for our team when the other team is ranked,” DSU coach Guy Fridley said. “I don’t have to do a lot of to motivate them for the game.”

After not scoring a point until the fifth minute of the game, DSU found its motivation, slowly chipping away and eventually went on a 20-3 run late in the first half to gain a slight advantage.

The Blue Hawks held on to the lead the rest of the way and sealed a 71-67 Dakota Athletic Conference victory at Scott Gymnasium.

“This is how we play in practice, now we’re finally showing it,” said DSU point guard Ashley Bakich-Emmons, who led the Blue Hawks on both ends of the floor during the momentum-turning first-half run.

The 5-foot-5 junior finished with 22 points, four rebounds and four assists and hit a big 3-pointer with 4:41 to play in the second half, which gave DSU a 63-56 lead shortly after Mines had the once 14-point lead to four.

“That took a little air out of their comeback,” Fridley said.

It was DSU’s second consecutive win over the Hardrockers, who are now 0-2 without All-American point guard Melanie Vedvei.

The 5-foot-7 senior was injured last Friday against Minot State and is presumed out for the season. Mines got off to a 9-0 lead and seemed in charge of things early. Then, with 6:44 left in the first half, DSU sophomore guard Mindy Vanderpan nailed a long 3-pointer from the right wing to start a scoring barrage that lasted until the end of the half.

Vanderpan had a pair of treys during the run while Bakich-Emmons and freshman guard Kelsey Boedeker sparked things on the defense end. “We went to that full-court zone press we put in last week,” Fridley said.

The Hardrockers, who dropped to 16-6 overall and 4-4 in the DAC, shot just 30 percent in the second half and struggled to find the bottom of the net.

“I don’t know how many we had rim out there,” Mines coach Barb Felderman said. Bethany Holyoak had a strong second half, scoring 11 of her 14 points after the break to help keep the Blue Hawks in check.

Loryn Schuetzle led the Hardrockers with 15 points but fouled out with less than three minutes to play shortly after she hit a 3-pointer to pull Mines back within four.

DSU, which improved to 7-15 overall and 3-5 in the DAC, never trailed in the second half.