Feb. 7—JAMESTOWN — When the University of Jamestown women’s basketball team was at Northwestern College on Nov. 21, they gave up a three with three seconds to go to lose 72-70. The Jimmies were determined to not let that happen again as they got a defensive stop at the buzzer to get a 72-71 win on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Harold Newman Arena.
When the buzzer sounded and the Jimmies grabbed the defensive rebound, Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey dropped to his knees and exuberantly pumped his fists in the air.
The game-winning basket from the Jimmies was scored by Kate Cordes with 1:46 to go in the game, part of a 22-point performance from the sophomore. She was not the only Jimmie who had a big performance as senior Audrey Rodakowski set a new career high with 25 points.
It is the third time this season that the Jimmies have had at least two players with 20 points or more after the aforementioned game against the Red Raiders when Kia Tower had 21 and Rodakowski had 20, and the game against Morningside on Dec. 6, when Cordes had 24 and Rodakowski had 20.
The Jimmies got out to an inauspicious start as they turned the ball over four times and gave up eight points on those turnovers to trail 12-0. However, a trip to the line flipped the script fo the Jimmies as Kia Tower hit both to cut the deficit to 12-2. The Red Raiders continued to withstand the Jimmies’ runs as they were able to stretch the lead out to 27-16. The Jimmies ended the first quarter on a run to cut the deficit to 27-21 heading into the second.
The Jimmies got it as close as 29-27 early in the second quarter. The Jimmies took their first lead of the day at 35-34 with 1:20 to go in the first half. The back-and-forth nature of the contest continued through the remainder of the game as the largest lead for either team was an eight-point lead from the Red Raiders at 53-45 with 4:54 to go in the third quarter.
The Jimmies return to the court at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10, when they host Midland University.
NWC 71, UJ 72
NWC: 27 14 16 14 — 71
UJ: 21 20 14 17 — 72
