Box Score

FARGO, N.D. – Kerah Nelson scored a season-high 26 points and DeAirra Goss hit a jumper late that looked like it would send the game to overtime, but for the second straight season, North Dakota State scored in the final seconds to defeat IUPUI, 71-68, Thursday evening at the Bison Sports Arena.

The loss dropped IUPUI to 9-8 overall and 3-2 in the Summit League, while the Bison upped its overall record to 7-11 and evened its conference mark at 3-3. North Dakota State is now 6-0 all-time against the Jags in Fargo.

The Jaguars trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half before rallying back to take the lead with less than three minutes to play, but the Bison scored five points in the final half minute to escape with the win.

“I was proud of the ladies for fighting back like they did, but it was hard for us to gain momentum as there were a lot of stops in play and they were able to score at the line,” said head coach Austin Parkinson. “We were able to speed the game up there towards then end to give us a chance, but it didn’t go our way.”

Nelson scored 18 of her game-high 26 points in the first half leading the Jags to a five-point halftime lead, and came out of the half scoring eight points in the first 8:50 before going scoreless the final 11:10. Goss scored eight of her 13 points from the 11:10 mark of the second half on, but it wasn’t enough for the Jags.

“Kerah really played well and set the tone for us offensively, and DeAirra stepped up late, but it was a little too late,” Parkinson said. “We need to be ready to go from the start of the game and be aggressive from the opening whistle.

“As a team, the reason we have been successful the last few games is because of our defense,” Parkinson added. “Tonight, for some reason, we didn’t play the type of defense we have been playing and when you don’t do that, you lose games and our defense is what cost us the game tonight.”

Offensively, the first half for IUPUI was dominated by two of its three leading scorers in Katie Comello and Nelson. That duo plus Goss scored the Jaguars first six points as they took a 6-4 lead a little more than two minutes in, but a nearly six-minute drought propelled North Dakota State on an 8-0 run to take a 12-6 advantage with less than 12 minutes to play.

Still trailing by six at the mid-way point of the half, Nelson went to work and scored the team’s next 16 points over a 6:20 stretch to catapult the Jaguars back on top, 28-25, with 3:51 to go.

After a Katie Birkel bucket trimmed the IUPUI lead to one, Akilah Sims buried a three from the left baseline, the first three of her career, pushing the lead to four. Two Bison free throws cut the lead in half, but a Comello runner with 14 seconds to go in the half sent the Jaguars into halftime with a 33-28 lead.

Nelson and Comello combined for 27 of the Jags 33 first-half points and hit 11-of-16 shots, while the rest of the squad hit just 1-of-10 shots from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

Nearly four minutes into the second half, the Jags were able to get some easy looks in transition to open up its biggest lead of the game, 42-33.

The lead remained at six, 48-42, following a Clara Mitchell lay-up, but that was when the Bison went on a lengthy run. The Jags were not able to hit a field goal from the 10:35 mark until Dawn Luster hit a lay-up with 5:06 and during that stretch, NDSU went on an 18-2 run to take a 60-50 advantage.

Despite the deficit, the Jaguars showed their toughness making a rally of their own courtesy of their full-court defense. IUPUI’s full-court pressure resulted in a handful of Bison turnovers and some easy buckets en route to a 14-3 run to jump back in front, 64-63, with 2:41 to play.

With the score tied at 66-66, NDSU went up by two on a Birkel shot with 21 seconds left, but Goss came back and knotted the score at 68-68 with a jumper of her own.

However, on the inbounds pass, Marena Whittle beat the Jags down the floor and hit a basket while being fouled with three seconds to go to put the Bison back in front, 70-68. After connecting on the free throw, the Jags had one final opportunity to send the game to overtime, but Nevena Markovic’s triple did not fall giving NDSU the 71-68 victory.

In addition to Nelson and Goss, Comello scored 12 points for the Jaguars, while Whittle led five double-figure Bison scorers with 17 points.

The Jags conclude their two-game road trip on Saturday, Jan. 19, when they travel to Summit League Leader South Dakota State. Tip between the Jags and Jackrabbits is set for 5 p.m. ET.