North Dakota State moves onto semifinals with victory against Denver

3/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

Press Conferences: NDSU Head Coach Jory Collins | NDSU Players | Denver Associate Heach Coach Kayla Ard | Denver Players

The Basics
Score: No. 6 North Dakota State 72, No. 3 Denver 68
Records: North Dakota State (11-18), Denver (15-15)
Location: Denny Sanford PREMIER Center - Sioux Falls, S.D.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Both No. 3 seed Denver and No. 6 seed North Dakota State came into Sunday's Summit League semifinal winless in the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The game went down to the wire before the Bison snapped their 0-5 streak and extended the Pioneers to 0-6 with a 72-68 win.

Tied at 4-4 early, NDSU went on a 7-0 run to open an 11-4 lead midway through the first quarter. The Pioneers quelled the run and the game went back-and-forth from there, but the Bison scored the final five points of the opening quarter to take a 24-13 lead.

Trailing 27-15 in the second quarter, the Pioneers found a groove and rattled off 11 straight points to cut the lead to 27-26 with 2:40 left in the first half, capped by a Lauren Loven jumper in the lane that drew a timeout from the NDSU bench.

NDSU's Olivia Skibiel stopped the run with a three-pointer out of the timeout, which allowed the Bison to keep the lead and take a 34-30 advantage into halftime.

The Pioneers scored first in the second half to cut their deficit to 34-32, and even though NDSU scored the next six points, Denver bounced back with an 8-0 run. That spurt was capped by a Loven three-pointer to tie the game at 40-all with 4:32 left in the third quarter.

The run grew to 10-0 on a Jasmine Jeffcoat layup with just under three minutes in the third quarter and gave the Pioneers their first lead of the game at 42-40, the first of two ties and two lead changes before the quarter ended in a 47-all tie.

Denver scored the first four points of the fourth quarter, but NDSU fired back with the next five, the first of five lead changes and four ties in the final 10 minutes. Down again at 57-55 with 6:47 left, the Bison went on a 7-0 run to gain a five-point lead, and even though Denver got a steal by Claire Gritt that led to a Madison Nelson layup with 46 seconds left to tie the game at 66, the Bison scored six of the final eight points to secure the win.

Ryan Cobbins led the Bison with 18 points while both Michelle Gaislerova and Rylee Nudell added 12 points each. Nudell's dozen points all came from the foul stripe where she did not miss and also added a team-high 12 rebounds to complete the double-double.

Nelson, an all-league first-teamer, scored a game-high 33 points and added 10 rebounds for a double-double of her own, while Meghan Boyd pitched in with 10 points in the loss.

NDSU advances to the tournament semifinals on Monday against No. 2 seed South Dakota State at 2:30 p.m CT.

Turning Point
Down 57-55 with 6:47 left, the Bison went on a 7-0 run to get a five-point lead and even though Denver came back to tie the game at 66-all with under a minute left, the Pioneers never led again.

Inside the Box Score

Denver started the game 0-for-9 from three-point range and finished the game 5-for-22. NDSU finished the game 6-for-20 from downtown.
Nudell notched her fifth double-double of the season.
Nelson posted her 20th double-double of the season, and her fifth in a row.
Nelson scored at least 30 points in a game for the fourth time this season

News & Notes

Sunday's game marked the first-ever tournament meeting between the two teams. NDSU leads the all-time series 11-10.
Denver falls to 2-7 all-time in the tournament, with a 1-6 mark in the quarterfinals.
NDSU snaps a 10-game tournament skid and improves to 2-10 all-time in the tournament, with a 2-9 mark in the quarterfinals.
Sunday's game marked the first postseason win for NDSU since a 46-43 win over Western Illinois in the 2009 Summit League quarterfinals

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