Lady Bucs Win 2 Home Games
The Dawson Community College Lady Bucs upset conference foe North Dakota State College of Science on Sunday 73-70 to pick up their first conference win of the season. The NDSCS Wildcats came into the game with a 14-2 overall record, but the Lady Bucs were ready.
The game was even throughout the first half, as the teams went into the locker room at halftime tied at 32. NDSCS has the most dominant post in the Mon-Dak conference in Maggie Westling, who is averaging 20.4 points per game and 13.4 rebounds per game. The Lady Bucs focus was stopping Wetterling. Things got complicated early, as Dawson's starting post, Tailee Bird, picked up two early fouls. Taylor Evans, Lou Nivot, and Lecita Sheriffs picked up the slack and took turns guarding the dominant post.
The Lady Bucs came out of the locker room in the third quarter on fire, ending the frame with a 55-44 advantage. However, as the Lady Bucs built a 14-point lead midway through the final quarter, fouls started to rack up. Julia Aragon, Taylor Evans, and Tailee Bird all fouled out, and starting point guard Hannah McDonald, a freshman from San Antonio, TX, and Lou Nivot, a freshman from France picked up their fourth fouls. Westling took advantage as she ended up shooting 20 freethrows and making 14 of them, ending up with 24 points and 14 rebounds. The key was that those points were very difficult.
The Wildcats shaved the deficit to 2 points, but freethrows from Nivot, Llobera, and Jasmine Half, a sophomore from Lodge Grass, MT helped the Lady Bucs seal the three point victory. Jana Llobera, a freshman point guard from Spain, paced the Lady Bucs with 24 points on 7-12 three pointers. Nivot ended with 15 points, as Julia Aragon, in her first home game, ended with 9 points and 6 rebounds.
The Lady Bucs turned around and played Lake Regions State Royals on Monday morning in the Dribble for a Dream game. The crowd was packed with energetic elementary and middle school students from around the area. The Lady Bucs got off to a fast start behind Sophomore Tailee Bird's post play as they were up 6-0 early. However, cold shooting for the Lady Bucs allowed the Royals to stay in the game. The Lady Bucs shot an ice-cold 0-21 from three point range in the first half. However, their defensive effort allowed them to go into the locker room at halftime only trailing 23-21.
The Royals came out of the locker room on fire from three point range, as they built a 14-point lead midway through the third quarter. However, two big three pointers by Llobera helped the Lady Bucs trim the lead to 8 going into the final frame. Julia Aragon used her athleticism to take over from there. Aragon finished with a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while going 7-10 from the charity stripe. Down four points with a couple minutes left, the Lady Bucs called a timeout to set up a play that was crucial. Lucia Godoy, who had been 0-5 from long range up to this point, was called upon to make a big play. Godoy drained a three pointer to cut the Royals lead to one, and gave the Lady Bucs all the momentum they needed. Jasmine Half took over as she scored 7 of her 9 points in the big stretch. Llobera was fouled with 5 seconds left and tied score. Jana calmly drained the first before missing the second, allowing the Royals to call time-out and advance the ball to half court to draw up a final play. The Lady Bucs came up with a big steal which sealed a 59-58 lead.
The elementary and middle school students played a huge role in this Lady Buc victory. The Lady Buc bench scored 22 points which was also key. The Lady Bucs look to improve on their two game winning streak on Thursday as they head to Williston to battle the Tetons for first place.
