NEWARK, N.J. - With a career-high 23 points from freshman Allyssa Wall, the University of North Dakota picked up a 67-51 Great West Conference victory over NJIT and notched the first road win for the Fighting Sioux this season.
A native of North Sioux City, S.D., Wall scored the first eight points of the game for either team. She finished 10-for-18 from the field, 3-for-4 at the free throw line and collected nine rebounds. Wall now sits just 12 points away from tying Kristi Boese (2002-03) at No. 10 on UND's all-time freshman scoring list with 256 points.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Wall," said UND head coach Gene Roebuck. "She really got things going in the first half. Then in the final minutes of the second half, she came in and made some baskets for us when we really needed it.
"This was a big win for us tonight. Any win right now is good, but we're going to have to play a lot better on Saturday if we're going to beat Chicago State."
With the win, the Fighting Sioux moved to 9-12 overall, 5-1 in the Great West. The Highlanders dropped to 7-13, 3-2 GWC. UND sits three games behind league-leading Chicago State (17-8, 8-0 GWC), who beat South Dakota 72-54 earlier tonight. The Sioux will have their first chance at the Cougars on Saturday. South Dakota (13-10, 4-2 GWC) and NJIT round out the top four teams in the conference.
Wall opened the game with an offensive rebound and a quick put back to give UND the 2-0 lead (18:29) - a lead the Sioux would hold through the remainder of the game. With a pair a baskets, each with a point after, Wall singlehandedly moved UND to an 8-0 lead.
Rayven Johnson put an end to the NJIT drought with a three-pointer at 15:01. She finished with two of NJIT's combined 10 three-pointers for six points.
The Sioux tacked on another three points with a bucket behind the arc by senior forward Mallory Youngblut (Davenport, Iowa) - her first of two three's of the game. Held to just eight points, Youngtblut's five-game double-figure streak came to a close.
The Highlanders knocked in a free throw at 12:40 to make it 4-11, but the Sioux answered with a 9-0 run to swell the lead to 20-4 just outside the seven-minute mark.
Through the ensuing three minutes, NJIT used a 13-3 run to clip the UND lead down to just six points. Ivana Seric, Johnson, and Emily Schartner each hit from beyond the arc to help the Highlander pick up some momentum.
Seric finished the game with a 10-point, 15-rebound double-double and Schartner came away with a team-leading and career-high 15 points on 3-for-15 shooting from three-point range.
UND fired back with a first half ending 10-0 run which included another six points from Wall, three from junior guard Charnay Mothershed (Phoenix, Ariz.) and free throw by sophomore Nicole Smart (Ada, Minn.) with four seconds on the clock.
Leading 33-17 with a fresh 20 minutes on the clock, freshman forward Megan Lauck (Arden Hills, Minn.) used just 59 seconds to knock in a pair of baskets to push the UND lead to 37-17.
"Megan was a spark in the second half," said Roebuck. "She hit some big shots and performed well at the line."
Lauck finished with 11 points - all in the second half - for her third straight double-figure game.
The Highlanders brought the margin back down to 10 points (37-27) thanks to a pair of three-pointers by Schartner and a jumper by Kimberly Dweck. One of four players in double figures, Dweck finished the game with 13 points.
The Fighting Sioux kicked the lead back out to 17 with 10:54 remaining in the game, but Highlanders quickly fired back with six unanswered points.
Heading into the final five minutes of the game, Schartner hit her fifth and final three of the game to make it 56-45, advantage UND.
However, UND outshot NJIT 9-3 in the final five minutes to hold on for an important Great West win on the road.
The Fighting Sioux out-shot the Highlanders from the field and at three-point range, but NJIT had the upper hand at the free throw line. UND finished 26-for-58 (.448) from the field, 5-for-14 (.357) beyond the arc, and 10-for-15 (.667) at the line. NJIT was 17-for-64 (.266) from the field, 10-for-43 (.233) at three-point range, and 7-for-10 (.700) at the free throw line.
Led by 11 rebounds (10 defensive) from senior forward Corey Lof (Detroit Lakes, Minn.), the Sioux won the rebounding battle 42-40 and converted NJIT's 16 turnovers into 26 points. Thirty-six points were scored in the paint, 22 were notched by players coming off of the bench, and each Sioux player to step on the court contributed to the UND scoring.
North Dakota will make a stop in Chicago to face league-leading Chicago State before returning to Grand Forks. The Fighting Sioux and the Cougars will tipoff at 2 p.m. at the Emil and Patricia Jones Convocation Center.
GAME NOTES: Mallory Youngblut is ranked 21st all-time at UND with 1,159 points. She is ranked No. 5 with 521 career three-point attempts and is fifth in career three-pointers made (203) ... North Dakota leads the all-time series over NJIT 3-0, including winning records in every location: UND leads 1-0 in Grand Forks and 2-0 in Newark ... Since the inaugural season of the Great West Conference (2008-09), UND has gone 16-2 against league foes and 28-36 against non-conference opponents ... The University of North Dakota women's basketball program holds a 777-293 record all-time since the first game was played in 1974. Under head coach Gene Roebuck, UND is 601-129 ... All-time, the Fighting Sioux are 425-83 (.836) when it comes to defending their own court and are 330-39 (.893) under the tutelage of Gene Roebuck ... UND is 90-14 (.861) all-time at the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center, which opened prior to the 2004-05 season.
- Go Sioux -
