Rockers stun JC

The road trip to the Black Hills is never easy.

Jamestown College got another reminder of that on Friday night.

South Dakota Mines snapped a six-game losing streak, knocking off No. 4-ranked Jamestown College 67-58 in Dakota Athletic Conference women’s basketball.

The Jimmies got off to a sluggish start and never recovered.

“When you’re at the top of the conference and ranked high, you’re going to get teams’ best shot every night,” Jimmies coach Mark Wiest said. “It’s a tough trip. It’s tough coming down here and it’s tough for them coming up to our place.

“But for the first time this year, I’m disappointed in how we played from start to finish. We were really flat in the first half, never played with any urgency or energy at either end of the floor.”

South Dakota Mines jumped out to an early lead and set the tone.

“A team that’s struggling, you give them some confidence and they start believing they can win the game,” Wiest said. “You can’t get away with that on the road.”

The Hardrockers’ standout posts led the way. Bethany Holyoak had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Jerika Ihnen added 11 points.

“They are solid post players,” Wiest said. “They’re very strong.”

Ariel Granillo added 11 points, hitting 3 of 6 from three-point range. That included a dagger late in the game off an inbounds play with 1 second on the shot clock. That gave the Hardrockers (7-13, 3-3 DAC) a seven-point lead with under three minutes to play.

“The little momentum we had at that point, that just took it right away,” Wiest said.

The Jimmies struggled offensively, connecting on just 14 of 49 field-goal attempts and missing 11 of 38 free throw opportunities.

“We only shot 28 percent from the field and part of that was South Dakota Tech,” Wiest said. “Their defense was very aggressive tonight. They really tried to bottle up our posts and we didn’t react to that the way we thought we would.

“If you had told me before the game we were going to shoot 38 free throws, I would have thought we would win the game. But we only made 27, and that’s a big swing.”

Kellie Schuneman led JC (14-5, 4-2 DAC) with 13 points, hitting 11 of 14 at the line. Ali Edwards added 11 for the Jimmies.

The Jimmies fell into a tie for second place in the DAC with the loss. No. 8-ranked Black Hills State was also upset on Friday night, losing at home to Valley City State. JC travels to Black Hills State on Saturday.

Dickinson State moved into sole possession of first place with a win over Dakota State.

South Dakota Mines 67, Jamestown College 58

Jamestown College 31 27 — 58

South Dakota Mines 33 34 — 67

JAMESTOWN COLLEGE (58): Kellie Schuneman 1-5 11-14 13, Amanda Rantapaa 1-9 2-2 5, Ali Edwards 2-9 5-6 11, Mara Paulson 2-7 1-4 5, Heidi Fiechtner 3-5 2-2 8, Dakota Anderson 0-0 2-2 2, Jackie Hust 2-5 1-2 5, Allison Epping 3-9 3-6 9.

Totals: 14-49 FG, 27-38 FT, 19 fouls, 40 rebounds (Fiechtner 8, Schuneman 7, Paulson 7, Epping 7), 19 turnovers, 8 assists (Rantapaa 3), 13 steals (Edwards 5). Three-pointers: 3-10 (Schuneman 0-2, Rantapaa 1-5, Edwards 2-2, Hust 0-1).

SOUTH DAKOTA MINES (67): Loryn Schuetzle 4-6 0-0 8, Jerika Ihnen 4-5 3-5 11, Bethany Holyoak 4-8 5-8 13, Stephanie Bjustrum 2-10 2-2 7, Ariel Granillo 3-11 2-3 11, Jessica Tsignine, 0-1 0-0 0, Whitney Ashford 0-0 0-0 0, Nicole Martin 4-5 0-1 8, Leah Sundby 2-5 1-2 7, Natasha Begay 1-8 0-0 2.

Totals: 24-59 FG, 13-21 FT, 22 fouls, 34 rebounds (Holyoak 12), 17 turnovers, 14 assists (Holyoak 3, Bjustrum 3, Granillo 3), 10 steals. Three-pointers: 6-19 (Schuetzle 0-1, Holyoak 0-1, Bjustrum 1-5, Granillo 3-6, Tsignine 0-1, Martin 0-1, Sundby 2-3, Begay 0-1).

Records: Jamestown College 14-5, 4-2 DAC; South Dakota Mines 7-13, 3-3 DAC.

Sun sports editor Scott Throlson can be reached at (701) 952-8462 or by e-mail at throlson@jamestownsun.com

Tags: black hills, jimmies, basketball, jc, sports, dac, women