Reising’s career-high not enough for OU

By DAN TALLANT

Contributing Reporter

ROCHESTER— On Saturday, the Golden Grizzlies women’s basketball team battled back frombeing down by as many as 10 points, only to go down in overtime to thefirst-place South Dakota State Jackrabbits, 64-63.

Itwasn’t until sophomore Hanna Reising hit a 3-pointer with 2:31 left in thesecond half that the Golden Grizzlies weren’t trailing in the game.

Defensewas key in the win for South Dakota State. The Jackrabbits held junior JessicaPike to eight points, who came into the game averaging 17.2 points per game.

“Weknew coming in that they were a great defensive team,” head coach BeckieFrancis said. “They did a good job and took away Pike.”

Oaklandshot 35 percent from the field. SDSU entered the game shooting nearly 50percent.

Thegame was a one-sided affair in the first half with Oakland only scoring 27,compared to the Jackrabbits’ 31 points.

TheGrizzlies came out in the second half and dug themselves into a 10-point holewith nine minutes left. The team stormed back to tie the game late.

Itwas a late 3-pointer by Reising that knotted the game at 59 with 18 ticks onthe clock.

Followingthe 3-pointer, Reising was then fouled and sent to the line. She converted onboth, giving Oakland their first lead of the game.

Thelead was short-lived, however, as South Dakota State’s senior Andrea Verdeganhit a ten-footer with time expiring to send the contest into overtime.

“Westarted to be a little more aggressive offensively and our defense was great,”Reising said. “We made some key stops on defense which allowed us to come back.”

Inovertime, an early foul by sophomore Melissa Jeltema sent South Dakota Statesophomore Maria Boever to the line, where she made one of two to give theJackrabbits the one point advantage. Jeltema fouled out, leaving OU without akey offensive threat the rest of the game.

Amissed shot at the other end of the court by the Grizzlies and a turnover byPike allowed for Boever to score again, extending the SDSU lead out to three.

JuniorApril Kidd made a layup with two minutes remaining to put Oakland within one. Adefensive stop for the Grizzlies with 30 seconds left allowed for a last-secondfield goal chance. Oakland took a timeout after controlling the ball with sixseconds left to set up their play.

Theball was sent down low to Pike, but the strong defense of SDSU did not allowher to get a shot off in time.

Theloss drops OU to a 13-7 record overall and 6-4 in the conference.

Leadingthe way for Oakland was Reising, who dropped a career-high 32 points in theeffort. Reising’s 32 points is the most scored by an Oakland player since Nov.27, 2004 when Nicole Piggott scored 37 at San Francisco.