Blue Hawks lead wire-to-wire to drop BU to third

DICKINSON, N.D. -- The Dickinson State University women's basketball opened the game on a 14-0 run and maintained a multi-possession lead throughout to down Bellevue University 78-70 on Saturday evening.

BU falls to 16-10 overall and 10-3 in league play. They will be the No. 3 seed in the NSAA Tournament and host a first round game on Tuesday, Feb. 21 with a game time to be determined over the course of the next week.

Dickinson State improves to 11-16 overall and 6-7 in NSAA play, remaining alive for a potential first round home game should they defeat Valley City on Thursday.

Bellevue struggled to find their rhythm in the opening quarter, with Dickinson State swelling their lead to 14-0 with 4:16 to play in the period. Shelby Little finally got BU on the board with a free throw and Taylor Dement recorded the Bruins' first field goal at the 3:04 mark.

Laura Jurek sank a pair of free throws in the final minute of the first half to pull BU within five, 38-33, their smallest deficit of the half but Tinley Pierson scored with 30 seconds remaining to give the Blue Hawks a 40-33 lead at the break.

In the third quarter, Bellevue saw the deficit yo-yo between 6-10 points for most of the stanza. McKenzie Johnson sparked a 7-0 run to close the final 38 seconds of the quarter with a basket as the lead grew to 64-51.

Lindsay Peterson scored 10 of her game-high 22 in the fourth quarter to push the DSU lead to a game-high 17 points, 76-59, on a trey with 3:38 remaining. Jurek answered with a basket to key an 11-0 run as the Bruins made the final look a little more competitive.

Samantha Oase and Johnson joined Peterson in double figures with 14 and 11, respectively, with Oase adding eight boards and four assists.

Dickinson hit on 49% of their field goals in the game, draining six treys and hitting on 18-of-27 free throws. Bellevue slumped to 39% shooting despite hitting nine threes but did shoot well at the charity stripe, going 15-of-19.

Faith Ross paced four Bruins in double figures, scoring 14 points. Asha Scott (12), Miranda Hennings (11), and Jurek (10) joined her with Scott and Jurek pacing the squad with eight rebounds apiece.

Bellevue travels to Madison, S.D. on Thursday, Feb. 16 to meet conference-leading Dakota State in the regular-season finale with tip-off slated for 5:30 p.m.