WATERTOWN, S.D. -- The No. 2-seed Bellevue University women's basketball team survived a furious fourth quarter comeback bid by No. 3-seed Valley City State University to escape with a 57-54 victory in the North Star Athletic Association semifinals at the Watertown Civic Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Bellevue improves to 22-9 on the year and will face Mayville State tomorrow at 1 p.m. after the Comets dispatched Presentation 71-44 earlier in the day. The winner of that game will earn the NSAA's automatic bid to the NAIA Division II National Tournament in Sioux City, Iowa.
Valley City State ends their season with a record of 14-14.
Bellevue entered the fourth quarter with a 16-point lead but saw the Vikings chip away to pull within a point, 55-54, on a pair of free throws from Hannah Schlecht with 3.1 seconds to play.
Faith Ross hit a pair of free throws with 2.1 seconds to play and Gabby Williams' desperation heave fell short as the Bruins came away victorious.
The Vikings opened the game strong, taking an early 8-4 lead on a three-pointer from Schlecht but Bellevue answered with a 13-0 run, including scoring the final 11 points of the first quarter. Jamie Winkler led all scorers with eight points in the opening period.
A three from VCSU' Martin ended that BU run but the Bruins kept Valley City at arm's reach, taking a 28-19 lead into the halftime break.
The Bruins out-shot Valley 44.0-21.4 percent in the first 20 minutes and enjoyed an 18-6 advantage in points in the paint.
Bellevue stretched their lead to a game-high 16 points as they closed the third quarter on an 11-4 run which featured an old-fashioned three-point play from Elexis Martinez, a trey from Winkler, and a buzzer-beating trifecta from Ross.
Valley opened the fourth quarter on a 9-1 run which was only interrupted by a free throw from Martinez.
Alli Vandal cut the Bruin lead to just four points with a basket with 57.1 seconds to play. Shayla Dean answered with a pair of free throws at the other end, one of the few bright spots for BU at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter where the Bruins went just 5-for-10 until Ross clinched the game late.
The Vikings had a chance to tie but Vandal twice missed layups inside the final 10 seconds and Bellevue came away with the rebound and drew a foul.
Winkler made one of two free throws and Bellevue gave a foul on Schlecht who sank a pair of free tosses to cut the lead to 55-54 before Ross secured the victory.
Winkler scored a team-high 20 points for the Bruins. Martinez narrowly missed a double-double finishing the game with nine points and 12 rebounds.
Vandal finished with 24 points, including 18 in the second half, and 12 rebounds to lead the Vikings. Schlecht scored 10 and had seven boards while Martin scored nine points in the loss.
