No. 9 Tiger women blow past Briar Cliff

The Dakota Wesleyan University women’s basketball team picked a good time to score a season-high 94 points.

In the first round of the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament, the second-seeded Tigers dominated No. 7 Briar Cliff 94-60 in front of 2,761 fans on Wednesday at the Corn Palace. The Tigers, ranked No. 9 in the nation, shot 60 percent from the field and never trailed the Chargers in the contest.

But for DWU head coach Jason Christensen, who said his team did everything well, the turnover margin stood out the most.

“In three years of playing Briar Cliff, we’ve never had just 11 turnovers. It’s usually 20-plus (against Briar Cliff),” Christensen said. “We pulled them out of their zone-press. We were really aggressive going to the rim and, defensively, we did a good job keeping them out of the paint.”   

With the win, DWU advances to the GPAC tournament semifinals, where the Tigers will face sixth-seeded Doane at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Corn Palace. It’s the second season in a row DWU has reached the GPAC semis.

It was a much-needed bounce-back victory for the Tigers, who dropped a 72-66 contest to College of Saint Mary, which had two GPAC wins this season, on Saturday in Omaha, Nebraska.

“We didn’t want that loss to define us and we want everyone to know we are for real,” said Ashley Bray, who scored a game-high 21 points for the Tigers on Wednesday against Briar Cliff. “The postseason is a new season for us and we want to take it one game at a time and play with everything we got.”

The Tigers (25-5) wasted no time taking control of the contest, opening on an 8-2 run. DWU built a double digit lead at 18-8 and back-to-back 3-pointers by Amber and Ashley Bray put DWU up 26-8 at the end of the first quarter.

“When you are playing a game at home, you want to go out and make a statement and I thought we did,” Christensen said about his team’s fast start.

DWU opened up its first 20-point lead at 33-13 early in the second quarter and extended its lead to by as many as 28 points. At halftime, the Tigers led 49-24 and were shooting 56 percent from the field (18-of-32).

“We did a really good job passing the ball and taking care of the ball,” Ashley Bray said. “We found the open girls and we knocked down shots. We just have to keep doing that.”

It was much of the same in the second half as DWU started on a 9-0 run to claim its first 30-point lead at 55-24 after a Rylie Osthus jumper.

Kristin Sabers recorded 15 points for the Tigers, while Osthus finished with 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists. DWU went 38-of-63 from the floor (60 percent), 6-of-15 from deep (40 percent), 12-of-18 from the free-throw line (66 percent) and dished out 20 assists.  

Briar Cliff (14-17) was led by Kailey Burke and Erin Grimshaw, who each scored 10 points. The Chargers went 23-of-64 from the field (35 percent), 5-of-20 from behind the arc (25 percent) and 9-of-12 from the line (75 percent).  

The Tigers won the rebounding battle 40-15.

NOTES: This was the third time this season DWU defeated Briar Cliff as the Tigers won 69-58 on Jan. 11 in Mitchell and 83-65 on Feb. 8 in Sioux City, Iowa.

Dakota Wesleyan 94, Briar Cliff 60

Briar Cliff University (14-17)

Alyssa Carley 0-5 0-0 0 Kaylee Blake 1-3 2-2 4 Julie Targy 2-2 0-0 5 Kailey Burke 4-9 2-4 10 Morgan Hansen 2-11 0-0 5 Taylor Vasa 3-5 0-0 6 Kylee Hickman 0-0 0-0 0 Faith Troshynski 2-4 0-0 6 Erin Grimshaw 4-10 2-2 10 Taylor Wagner 1-8 2-2 5 Rachel Knutson-Kobold 4-7 1-2 9 Totals 23-64 9-12 60

Dakota Wesleyan University (25-5)

Rylie Osthus 4-6 3-4 11 Erica Herrold 3-8 4-4 10 Ashley Bray 9-11 0-0 21 Chesney Nagel 2-4 1-2 5 Amber Bray 2-6 2-2 7 Angie Lee 1-2 0-0 2 Makaela Karst 0-0 0-0 0 Madison Kuehl 1-2 0-0 2 Shanna Selby 1-1 0-0 2 Kynedi Cheeseman 3-6 1-2 8 Kristin Sabers 7-9 0-0 15 Sarah Carr 2-4 1-2 5 Mikaela Stofferahn 2-3 0-0 4 Sam Schuh 0-0 0-2 0 Meghan Travis 1-1 0-0 2 Totals 38-63 12-18 94

BCU 8 24 41 60

DWU 26 49 77 64

3-point goals: BCU 5-20 (Troshynski 2-3, Wagner 1-4, Targy 1-1, Hansen 1-5, Carley 0-4, Blake 0-1, Grimshaw 0-2), DWU 6-15 (Ashley Bray 3-4, Amber Bray 1-2, Cheeseman 1-2, Sabers 1-2, Herrold 0-4, Lee 0-1); Rebounds: BCU 15 (Vasa 5), DWU 40 (Osthus 7); Assists: BCU 10, DWU 20; Fouls: BCU 15, DWU 13; Fouled out: BCU (none), DWU (none); Steals: BCU 5, (Hansen 2), DWU 3 (Osthus, Nagel, Schuh); Blocks: BCU 6 (Burke 3), DWU 3 (Nagel, Amber Bray, Sabers); Turnovers: BCU 7, DWU 11; Attendance: 2,761.