HELENA, Mont. — The No. 7-seeded University of Jamestown has officially moved on to the second round of the NAIA Women’s Basketball Tournament for the first time since 2018 with a 73-68 win over No. 10-seeded Indiana University South Bend on Tuesday, March 7, at the PE Center.
The win pushes the Jimmies' record in single-digit games out to 7-6 this season.
“We played 15 games against national tournament teams this season leading into tonight and that’s something that we trusted as a team and we talked about it and we relied on it,” Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said. “It was a new experience for all of our players, none of our players had been to the national tournament before and so what we really wanted to think about and the way we wanted to approach it was with a focus on the tough teams and the tough games that we’ve played all year long. I thought down the stretch especially as we felt that game be tight that was a place we’ve been before and a place we’ve pulled out wins and we were able to do that tonight.”
The Jimmies (22-10) took their first lead of the game at 5-4 on a Hannah DeMars three and they would not give the lead up until early in the second quarter but they immediately took the lead back at 23-21 with 7:33 to go in the first half. Over the last seven and a half minutes of the first half, the Jimmies were able to stretch the lead out to seven points on multiple occasions. In total in the first half, the Jimmies spent a lot of time at the free-throw line, as they shot 7-for-10 from the stripe.
Midway through the third quarter the Jimmies were able to stretch their lead out to double digits for the first time with a Kate Busek free throw to push the lead out to 52-42 with 4:57 to go in the third. Despite the Jimmies stretching it out, the Trojans (28-3) were able to fight back and cut it to a two-point game on a Tia Chambers layup with just under six minutes to go in the game. The Jimmies immediately responded with a Busek jumper and withstood another late run to get the win.
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The Jimmies are back in action at 8:05 p.m. when they take on Carroll College.
IUSB 68, UJ 73
IUSB: 13 21 19 15–73
UJ: 20 16 21 11–68
Points leaders:
IUSB: Maddie Gard 21, Rachel Robards 13, Jazmen Watts 10
UJ: Hannah DeMars 24, Kia Tower 19, Sarah Lenz 13
Assists leaders:
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IUSB: Emma Fisher 4, Sara Doi 3, Katie Gard 2
UJ: DeMars 4, Kate Busek 4, Tower 1, Lenz 1, Kate Cordes 1, Hannah Hagel 1
Leading rebounders:
IUSB: Tia Chambers 10, K. Gard 7, Fisher 4, Robards 4, Doi 3
UJ: DeMars 9, Busek 9, Jailyn Martinson 4, Audrey Rodakowski 4, Lenz 4, Megan Oswald 2, Hagel 2, Tower 1
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