JAMESTOWN, N.D. -- After battling back from a 13-point deficit (RV) the Bellevue University women's basketball team took the lead with under two minutes to play but were unable to hold on as #16 Valley City State University survived a gritty BU effort, 62-57, on Saturday afternoon in the North Star Athletic Association Tournament Semifinals at Newman Arena on the campus of the University of Jamestown.
Second-seeded Valley City improves to 25-4 with the win. They will play Jamestown tomorrow at 3 p.m. for the NSAA Tournament Championship. The third-seeded Bruins see their record dip to 19-13 with an outside chance at receiving an at-large bid to the NAIA National Tournament. They will have to wait until Wednesday before learning their fate.
BU struggled shooting in the first quarter, hitting on just four of their first 15 field goal attempts as VCSU built a 16-9 lead after one period of play. A free throw by Elexis Martinez at the 2:37 mark close the deficit to three points but the Vikings scored the final four points of the quarter.
Valley City built on their run to close the first quarter by scoring the first six points of the second to push their lead to 22-9 before a three from Beth Walker slowed the Viking momentum with 6:35 to play in the first half. That began an 8-2 run which pulled the Bruins to within 24-17 after a bucket from Martinez.
Despite being out-shot 51.9-29.6 percent in the first half BU went into halftime trailing just 33-23. The Bruins did a good job getting VCSU into foul trouble as four Vikings went into halftime with at least two fouls and the Bruins shot 10 first half free throws to Valley City's four.
Alli Vandal led all scorers with 12 points in the first half while Caletria Curtis paced the Bruins with eight first half points.
The third quarter saw the teams trade 8-2 runs as the start before Jamie Winkler hit a three for the Bruins and Lexi Lennon tallied five quick points for VCSU as they went up by 12 with 1:17 to go in the third. Buckets by Curtis and Ryleigh McCartney saw the Bruins trim the lead to 48-40 headed into the final quarter.
The Bruins began the fourth quarter on an 8-3 run to pull to within one possession, 51-48, for the first time since the first quarter. The deficit was three when Kennedy Henningsgard's missed three-point attempt was rebounded by Morgan Cuffe who scored at the other end off a pass from Shayla Dean to pull BU within a single point, 55-54, with 3:40 remaining in the game.
A terrific defensive possession by the Bruins which included a blocked shot from Curtis and a steal by Cuffe allowed Bellevue to take their first lead since it was 4-2 when Walker knocked down a trifecta to go up 57-55 with 1:58 to play. A pair of free throws by Kaitlin Connor and a Kate Williams three saw VCSU storm back to take a three-point lead, 60-57, as BU took a timeout with 1:03 to go.
Bellevue had chances over the game's final minute but came up empty and Valley City did just enough at the free throw line, going 2-for-4 in the final nine seconds, to preserve the win.
