by Mitchell, S.D. – Dakota Wesleyan women’s basketball team fell at home 85-75 to the No. 1 Dordt Defenders in their regular season home finale. The Tigers fell in a big 58-37 hole in the first half, but came out clawing in the second half, outscoring the Defenders 38-27 and holding them to 15 points or under in every quarter. In the first half Dordt was firing on all cylinders on offense scoring 29 points in each quarter. On the DWU side of the court the Tigers were led by Rylee Rosenquist who had a career high 26 points to go with three rebounds and assists. Maleighya Estes provided big minutes off the bench as well with her career high 10 points. Morgan Edelman recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds to go along with five assists. The dominant freshman duo of Shalayne Nagel and Emma Yost was the clear gameplan for Dordt to shut down as the pair combined for just eight points in the contest.
Dakota Wesleyan was outscored in the paint 42-30 and loss the rebounding battle 45-32 which has only happened a handful of times this season. The Tigers shot just below 40% in the game while the Defenders had a 45% from the field. DWU kept it close with their very efficient 21-23 shooting from the free throw line which was mostly thanks to Rosenquist going a near perfect 13-14 from the charity stripe.
In the first half Rosenquist was your leading scorer for the Tigers with her 14 points, nine coming from the free throw line. On the defensive side of the ball Shalayne Nagel continued to make a strong case for defensive player of the year with her three blocks against the top ranked Defenders low post players. In the half Dakota Wesleyan had eight players in the scoring column. The usually dominant squad on the offensive boards was bested by the Defenders in the first half who had 10 to the Tigers five and turned those 10 into 16 second chance points.
Out of the locker room the Tigers had a clear plan of playing physical brand of basketball which led to Dordt lowest quarter at just 12 points. DWU had some struggles of their own on offense in the quarter, netting just 17 points, but chipped away at the Defender lead. Third quarter was the Edelman show as she had seven of the 17 points and ripped down four rebounds. DWU continued to show no quit in the fourth quarter, winning it 21-15, but the deficit from the first half proved to be to large as the Tigers fell 85-75. Rosenquist went off for 10 points in the quarter while Edelman got her one rebound late to complete the double-double for her. Estes also stepped up in crunch time playing eight of the 10 minutes in the quarter and scoring six points.
