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Top-Seed North Dakota Gets First GWC Tournament Victory
March 12, 2010 North Dakota 70, South Dakota 60 OREM, Utah - Jossy Bergan scored 18 points and GWC first-team all-conference selection Mallory Youngblut posted a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds to lead top-seed North Dakota to a 70-60 win over No. 4 seed South Dakota in the semifinals of the Great West Conference Basketball Tournament at Orem, Utah. Bergan, an honorable mention all-conference selection, also added five rebounds and four assists and hit 5-5 from the charity stripe in the victory. Joining Bergan and Youngblut in double figures for UND were GWC Player of the Year Kayla Bagaason with 17 points and second-team all-conference honoree Whitney Ledger with 13 points and nine boards. "We played some really hard-nosed basketball," said North Dakota coach and GWC Coach of the Year Gene Roebuck. "Our people inside rebounding went up hard and pulled the ball down. Ledger was phenomenal in the second half getting the offensive boards, making some clutch baskets, and getting to the free throw line. Jossy had a great game and these two here (Bagaason and Youngblut) play a big part in the scoring, but the nuts and bolts are the other three who step in and really work to do the job for all of us. It was a team effort. "You don't know how it is going to be when you're sitting in a hotel for three days (UND received a bye as the top seed). I thought our players came out with a lot of energy. Knowing that we were playing South Dakota we stepped our game up. They pretty much had their way with us in Grand Forks so our players were fired up to meet the challenge."
The Fighting Sioux took a 39-30 lead into the locker room at the half after hitting 9-19 (.474) from beyond the arc in the first half. UND increased its lead to as much as 17 (62-45) at the 6:49 mark in the second frame before the Coyotes (15-16) were able to cut it to eight with 2:57 remaining. "We just didn't get off to the greatest start," said South Dakota coach Ryun Williams. "North Dakota banged home a bunch of threes early and that just got us really tentative. I give our kids credit. The second half we just wanted to come out with a little more intensity. Defensively we made the adjustments we needed to make. We just needed the ball to go in the basket. Give our kids credit for getting those shots, but in semifinals games like this those are shots you have to make. Stat-wise it was pretty even across the board. The foul line was an advantage for them because they were aggressive. They were the aggressor tonight and we played on our heels just a little too much." First-team all-GWC selection Amber Hegge led South Dakota with 16 points. Kara Iverson scored 13 points and Annie Roche added 12 in the losing effort. North Dakota (17-13), the GWC regular-season champion, will play the winner of the Texas-Pan American-Utah Valley game in the GWC Tournament finals at 4 p.m. (MT) on Saturday.
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