Mastodons Fall in Battle on Senior Night

Monday, February 21

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7:00 PM

Purdue Fort Wayne

18-8 (12-4)

South Dakota State

15-13 (11-6)

South Dakota State

IPFW

Stephanie Rosado scored a game-high 23 points while adding six rebounds and three blocked shots

2/21/2011 9:42:17 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE | POSTGAME NOTES (.pdf)

Fort Wayne, IN - The IPFW Mastodons were able to shake off a sluggish opening half, battling with the South Dakota State Jackrabbits, and taking a late lead, before falling in the nailbiter 50-47.

The loss drops IPFW to 18-8 on the season, and 12-4 in Summit League play, while South Dakota State improves to 15-13 on the season and 11-6 in conference action.

Stephanie Rosado scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, while blocking a game-high three shots. Two players, Chelsey Jackson and Anne Boese, each scored six, while three more, Jordan Zuppe, Sydney Weinert, and Amanda Hyde, each scored four.

Rosado pulled down a team-high six rebounds, while Jackson had six assists and Anne Boese four steals in the narrow loss.

IPFW made just 16-of-48 shots (33.3 percent) for the game, and just 7-of-28 (25.0 percent) in the opening 20 minutes of play. South Dakota State converted on 37.5 percent (18-of-48) of its shots in the game, including 7-of-19 (36.8 percent) from long range.

Despite the struggling offense, the Mastodon defense played strong throughout, holding SDSU's top two scorers, Jennie Sunnarborg and Kristin Rotert, who were averaging a combined 27.5 points per game, to just seven total points in the contest.

The Mastodons opened the scoring in the game with a pair of Weinert free throws, before the visitors scored the next five points, and took a lead they would not give up until late in the contest.

IPFW twice cut the deficit to a single point, including at 7-6, seven minutes into the game, but SDSU ran off a 11-4 run to increase the lead to eight halfway through the period, and closed the half with an eight point lead at 24-16.

A Katie Lingle basket a minute into the second half gave the game its largest margin, 10, at 26-16, before the Mastodons scored four of the next five points to close the gap to six.

Trailing by seven after a Hannah Strop three-point basket with 7:05 to play in the game, the Mastodons held SDSU scoreless for the next five and a half minutes. While the Jackrabbit offense stalled, IPFW's clicked into full gear with back-to-back lay-ups from Rosado that cut the deficit to three with six minutes to play in the game. Boese knotted the score with her second three-point basket of the game, this one coming with 2:48 on the clock, before Rosado capped the run with a baseline jumper that gave IPFW its first lead since the early portions of the game.

On the next possession, Jill Young made one of two free throws to end the IPFW run, and cut the deficit in half, before Macie Michelson scored the final two of her 10 points with a jumper on the next possession with 51 seconds to play. IPFW came up empty on its attempt to re-take the lead with a charging foul on the offensive end, before Rotert missed the front end of a one-and-one to keep the margin at a single point.

A missed lay-up with 19 seconds left put the ball once again in the Jackrabbits' hands, where Jennifer Schuttloffel made both of her free throw attempts to put the margin at three, as IPFW's last chance at a three-pointer to tie the game was blocked by Schuttloffel at the buzzer, giving the visitors the three-point victory.

Young scored a team-high 15 points for the Jackrabbits, while pulling down 10 rebounds for the double-double. Strop added nine points off of the bench for SDSU, while three players, Michelson, Rotert, and Strop, each had two assists to pace the team.

The Mastodons return to action in the team's final road trip of the regular season, when the squad travels West to take on the Kangaroos of UMKC on February 26, in the first game of a women's/men's double header at the Sweeney Recreation Center.

~Dons~