GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Junior Courtney Waldon (Sun Prairie, WI/Sun Prairie) (Sun Prairie, Wis.) recorded 20 points and a game-high five assists as Chicago State dropped a 76-59 decision at North Dakota Saturday afternoon in a Great West Conference women's basketball contest at UND's Betty Englestad Sioux Center. The Cougars fell to 10-16 (5-4) on the season, while the Fighting Sioux improved their record to 9-13 (5-1).
CSU jumped out to an early 7-2 lead at the opening two minutes of the contest after sophomore Janay Dockery (Detroit, MI/Martin Luther King) (Detroit, Mich.) canned a short jumper. The home team then went on a 23-10 scoring drive that lasted nearly 11 minutes, led by six points from senior Jossy Bergan, to gain a 25-17 following a junior Mallory Youngblut jumper at 7:38. The Cougars bounced back to even the score at 32-32 after junior Tressa Beckel (Waseca, Minn./Wisconsin) (Waseca, Minn.) hit a layup at the 1:43 mark to close a 15-7 run over a six-minute stretch in which Beckel scored six points, but senior Kayla Bagaason hit a three-pointer with seven seconds remaining in the stanza to give UND a 35-32 lead heading into the half.
After Waldon opened the second half with a three to tie the score at 35 at 19:47, the Fighting Sioux went on a 34-14 scoring drive over a span of 12:21 with Youngblut posting 10 points to regain the lead at 65-49 at 6:25. The Cougars could get no closer than 19 points the rest of the way.
Dockery finished the game with 11 points, four rebounds and four assists, while senior Laureen Pierson (Dayton, OH/Northmont) (Dayton, Ohio) added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting. Beckel tallied eight points with two blocks, and senior Alyssa Waldon (Sun Prairie, WI/Sun Prairie) (Sun Prairie, Wis.) posted four assists and three steals.
Bagaason tallied a game-high 22 points and Youngblut posted 19 points to lead North Dakota. Bergan recorded 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, while senior Whitney Ledger and junior Corey Lof each produced a game-high nine rebounds.
CSU closes its three-game road swing on Feb. 20 when it heads to Durham, N.C. to take on North Carolina Central in its final non-conference game of the season with a start time of 3 p.m.
~CSU~
