Read a live blog replay of the game by University Journal Sports Editor Carter Williams.
SUU Junior forward Challis Pascucci finished with a game-high 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and North Dakota State freshman center Janae Burich missed a short jump shot at the buzzer as the T-Birds women's basketball fended off the Bison 59-58 at the Centrum Arena Monday night.
"We were going to win this," Pascucci said, "Whatever it took, we were going to win this game. It was in our hands and we had control of it and all of us knew we weren't going to let this slip even though (the Bison) fought back as tough as they could. We just stuck with it and didn't give up."
SUU had a 59-50 with 1:46 left in regulation, but NDSU stormed to within one point with an 8-0 run in less than a minute.
Sophomore guard Cassie Burgess missed a layup for the T-Birds with 17 seconds left in the game, but the Bison were unable to score after junior guard Whitney Trecker missed a jump shot.
However, senior guard Inger Hodson was able to grab the offensive rebound and NDSU called a timeout with 1.6 seconds left in regulation.
After the timeout, Burich attempted to maneuver around Pascucci, but her last chance shot rimmed out and SUU won its second conference win of the season.
"(We were thinking) no buckets for them, nothing," junior guard Caitlyn Sears said. "Pretty much the only thing we could do in that situation is guard our brains out and don't let them touch the ball and don't let them get a good shot off and Challis did that."
Women's basketball head coach JR Payne said she knew the play NDSU was going to run because of vigorous game film study.
"We knew what they were going to run," she said. "As soon as they put (Burich) in with one second left, we knew they were going to run that."
The T-Birds were previously 0-4 all time against the Bison heading into the game.
"A win's a win," Sears said. "It's good to feel that confidence that we can beat a team we haven't beaten yet since they joined our conference."
Sears said the team was fueled by the way they played in the second half against South Dakota State Saturday night.
"We looked at it and said 'if we can play with (SDSU), then we can play with these guys' ", she said. "We took that intensity and brought it into this game and tried to continue it throughout the remainder of the game."
The T-Birds outshot NDSU 43 percent to 33 percent in the game.
After SUU allowed the Bison to shoot 5-for-9 from 3-point range in the first half, the T-Birds locked down NDSU and only allowed the Bison to shoot just 1-of-14 from beyond the 3-point line in the second half.
"The first half they were shooting over 50 percent from the 3-point line," Payne said. "But, we talked about it at halftime that we couldn't let them beat us three at a time."
Sixteen of Pascucci's 18 points came in the first half and Pascucci finished just one point shy of tying her career-high in scoring.
"She's just awesome," Payne said. "She's been consistent all year. I can't think of a game when she has really been off."
SUU outrebounded NDSU 40-39 in the game, but allowed a few key offensive rebounds for the Bison in the final minutes of the game. Those rebounds helped in NDSU's late game run and the Bison outrebounded the T-Birds 17-11 on the offensive glass.
"We had done a good job on the boards," Payne said. "But we didn't do so well late in the game and we gave up too many (offensive rebounds)."
Sears added 15 points and junior guard Kaila Goff had seven points and a game-high five assists for the T-Birds. Goff was making just her third start of the season after having off-season knee surgery.
"(Goff) is just a point guard. That's something (Burgess), who is such a good player at the (three guard spots) and has done a great job at point this year, but her more natural position is probably a combo guard," Payne said. "(Goff) has always played point and she was confident there and coming off a knee (injury), but she's hitting her stride right now."
Sophomore forward Abby Plucker led the Bison with 13 points, while sophomore guard Katie Birkel contributed with 12 more.
SUU will resume conference play Saturday by traveling to Oakland on Saturday, followed by Purdue-Fort Wayne on Monday.
Tip-off against the Golden Grizzlies is slated for 7 p.m. in Rochester, Mich. Saturday.
"Our team gets along so well, we like going on the road," Payne said. "We haven't found much success on the road this year, but with this new found confidence, I hopefully we'll be able to build on that and get one."
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