FARGO -- Indiana Purdue-Indianapolis quickly grabbed a doubledigit lead on North Dakota State on Saturday and never let go of it.
The Jaguars cruised to a 71-46 Summit League women's basketball win over NDSU at the Bison Sports Arena.
IUPUI (11-6, 1-1 Summit League) built a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes behind the shooting of sophomore guard Nicole Rogers. Rogers hit her first four 3-point field goal attempts and finished with 12 points.
"Nicole is one of the best shooters I have ever been around," IUPUI coach Austin Parkinson said. "She was 3-for-20 in our last three games, so those early 3-pointers were huge. We knew they were going to come out in zone, but when she makes shots it changes the dynamic of our team."
Rogers' fourth 3-pointer gave the Jaguars a 17-6 lead with 14 minutes, 12 seconds remaining in the first half.
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NDSU (3-13, 0-2) never cut IUPUI's lead to single digits after Rogers' final 3-pointer.
"Once (Rogers) hit a flurry of those 3-pointers we started to press offensively and took some early shots," NDSU coach Carolyn DeHoff said. "Againsta good team like IUPUI you have to move the ball side to side to break them down defensively. We gave them the ball back early on several possessions."
The loss is NDSU's ninth in a row and contrasted greatly from its Summit League opener on Thursday when the Bison fell to Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne in double overtime.
"That game took a lot of our kids," DeHoff said of the loss to the Mastodons. "Some of it has to do with the course we are on right now. They haven't been able to taste victory out of the effort they have been giving in losing these close games."
Sophomore Marena Whittle scored 12 points to lead the Bison and junior guard Brooke LeMar added 10 points.
NDSU shot 31.5 percent from the field and was outrebounded 44-28.
The Bison opened the second half with 4-0 run to get to within 12 points of the Jaguars with 18:07. IUPUI called a timeout to regroup and responded witha 15-4 run to regain the momentum. Mikale Rogers led the Jaguars with 16 points. Former Minot standout Holly Johnson finished with nine points and nine rebounds for NDSU.
-Tom Mix, Forum News Service
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NDSU 87, IUPUI 64
North Dakota State did what was needed to rid itself of the bad taste of defeat -- replace it with the sweetness of victory. A late first-half run propelled the Bison to a win over host Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. NDSU improves its overall record to 12-5 and evens its Summit League mark at 1-1.
"It beats 0-2," NDSU coach Saul Phillips said. "We executed much better, and I think we would have had a much better chance of winning at Fort Wayne if we would have executed like we did tonight. We were efficient and awfully fun to watch."
IUPUI (5-14, 0-2) held its largest lead at 19-14, when the Bison began battling back as Mike Felt drained 3-point buckets on back-to-back processions. The two buckets gave the 6-foot-3 senior guard 229 three-pointers for his career, which is third alltime at NDSU.
"I wanted to make an impact coming off the bench and give my team a spark," Felt said. "That is what they ask of me, and that is whatI want to do for my team."
That triggered a 15-0 run in which Felt accounted for nine of the points on 2 of 2shooting and a perfect 3-for-3 from the free-throw line.
The Bison got 22 points from their bench, led by Felt's 12.
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While Felt dominated that twominute spurt to get the lead, it was senior TrayVonn Wright who stole the remainder of the show with his career-high 24 points for NDSU.
"Cuts to the rim," Wright said led to his 17-point explosion in the second half. "They played zone (defense), so cuts to the rim and getting open spots in the zone and knocking down the shot."
- By Jason Haddix, Forum News Service
