Box Score

FARGO, N.D. – IUPUI led for nearly 19 minutes in the second half, but an offensive put-back by North Dakota State’s Hannah Linz as the buzzer sounded gave the Bison a 58-56 win in the regular-season finale for both teams Monday evening at the Bison Sports Arena.

The loss dropped the Jaguars to 12-18 overall and 7-11 in Summit League action, while the Bison improved to 11-19 overall and 8-10 in conference play.

Kerah Nelson led IUPUI with 20 points and added seven rebounds, but following her third three-pointer of the game at the 7:07 mark, the Jags managed just three points down the stretch allowing the Bison to make a comeback.

“Our ladies, for a majority of the game, gave tremendous effort out there and fought hard on the road, but it came down to the end and they made one more play than us,” said head coach Austin Parkinson.

Emily Phillips put together a solid all-around performance with seven points, six assists and four steals.

“Kerah made some great plays for us and made some quality jump shots,” Parkinson added. “Emily made some great drives and kicked it out to open teammates and really got us some quality looks.”

Scoring was at a premium over the first eight minutes as both teams combined to shoot 7-of-27 resulting in a 9-8 lead for North Dakota State.

From the 11:19 mark to the 8:30 mark, Katie Comello scored IUPUI’s next seven points, including a three-pointer, to give IUPUI its first lead of the game at 15-12.

However, a quick 6-0 response by the Bison catapulted North Dakota State back in front, 18-15, at the 6:31 mark.
IUPUI shed its shooting woes thanks in part to Nelson, who scored eight of the Jags 13 points during a 13-4 spurt to open a 28-22 lead at the under-four media timeout.

Leading by five with under a minute to play, the Jags denied the Bison a shot attempt forcing three turnovers in the final minute and used a Janna Eichelberger put-back to take a 33-26 lead into halftime.

The Jags hit a staggering 62.5 (5-of-8) percent of its three-point attempts in the first half coming from four different players, helping to the seven-point lead.

North Dakota State came out of the half with a renewed focus and was able to cut its seven-point deficit to two, 39-37, at the 14:25 media timeout.

Leading 41-38 with Nelson off the floor getting a breather, the Jags used an eight-foot pull-up jumper by Nevena Markovic and an easy lay-up from Clara Mitchell off a Phillips feed to push their lead back to seven, 45-38, with 11:34 to play.

A Nelson step-back three gave the Jags their largest lead of the game, 53-42, with just over seven minutes to play, but NDSU came all the way back to tie the game at 54 with 1:32 remaining.

Markovic hit a jumper just inside the three-point arc with over a minute on the clock, regaining the two-point lead, 56-54, but Linz found an opening in the paint for a lay-up to tie things up at 56 with 42 seconds left.

During IUPUI’s next possession, Nelson looked to place the Jags back in front, but missed a jumper from the right baseline giving NDSU a chance to hold for the final shot. Linz got off a shot with 2.7 seconds left that was blocked out of bounds by Markovic, but on the inbounds play, she managed to get off a put-back with less than a second-remaining off a Dani DeGagne miss. Linz’s lay-up dropped giving the Bison the two-point win.

“At the end of the day, we battled to the end and in these past two games our opponents shot 33 free throws compared to 13 for us,” Parkinson added. “I thought we were aggressive offensively, so hopefully we can continue our aggressiveness at the Summit League Tournament and see what happens.”

Without official confirmation, it appears the Jaguars will be the No. 5 seed in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Summit League Tournament, which will take place March 3-6 in Sioux Falls, S.D. IUPUI will take on North Dakota State in a rematch from tonight’s game on Sunday, March 4. This will be the Jags first Summit League Tournament appearance since the 2008-09 season.

“I’m excited we get an opportunity to play North Dakota State again and we are looking forward to representing IUPUI in the in conference tournament,” Parkinson concluded.