While the Dakota State Lady T's dropped two games this past weekend in North Dakota, Coach Joe Reints is confident that the mistakes from the team are fixable.
"This season is nearing the end," said Reints. "The girls need to know all of the mistakes are easily fixable. The girls need to know it can be fixed by choosing to hustle, choosing to take a charge and choosing to put the extra effort in."
The Lady T's lost to #25 ranked Jamestown College 78-67 on Friday and fell to #21 Valley City State University 99-78 on Saturday.
DSU is now 7-18 on the season and 3-5 in the Dakota Athletic Conference.
Jamestown College
Katie Bourk scored a 3-pointer for DSU to make the score 4-3, and for the rest of the first half, neither team held a lead greater than four points.
"We played really well in the first half," said Reints.
The Lady T's were up 51-47 early in the first half behind strong play from Megan Swecker and Bourk, but then the Lady Jimmies started to make their run.
Holding a 67-58 lead, Jamestown benefited from some questionable calls by the referees.
Alyssa Kirk picked up her fifth foul for the Lady T's with about 12 minutes left in the game. Minutes later, Swecker picked up her fifth foul, in addition to her second technical as the result of protesting her fifth foul.
Reints refused comment on the referees, but said that he thought his team handled the calls poorly.
"We have to handle adversity better. We have to have more poise as a team," said Reints. "We didn't act very professionally and we may have ended up beating ourselves."
Despite DSU playing well, Jamestown went on a 24-7 run over a span of nearly 11 minutes. Lack of intensity was a factor for his team, according to Reints.
Bourk led DSU with 20 points and Swecker had 18 points.
Allison Epping scored 17 points and Mara Paulson added 16 for Jamestown.
Valley City State
The Vikings used a quick, fast full-court press and the Lady T's had a hard time reacting on Saturday.
DSU found themselves down 54-30 in the first half.
"They shot the ball really well," said Reints. "We left a lot to chance in this game, and they took advantage of that."
DSU came out strong in the second half and showed some muscle, outscoring Valley City State by three points in the second half (48-45), but still lost by 21 points.
"I thought we played like we had nothing to lose in the second half, but that's easy to do when you are down by 24," said Reints. "If we did that when the score was 0-0, we wouldn't be down by 24."
Reints picked up a technical foul for sticking up for his players in the second half.
By halftime, Brittany Olson had 18 points and Abby Rittenhouse had 14 for Valley City State. Rittenhouse ended the night with 27 points and Olsen had 25.
Brittany Rosberg and Dayna Tschakert had 10 points apiece after 20 minutes for the Lady T's.
Bourk scored all of her 17 points in the second half, and Rosberg ended the night with 16 points. Tschakert had 14 and Tricia Boldt chipped in with 10.
The Lady T's will travel to Mayville State on Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. game.
"We're heading back up there and playing a team very hungry for a win," said Reints. "We've got to look at things we do well and things we don't do well to get better."
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