Sister act leads Sioux over Bison
By John Kjorstad
Fargo Forum
GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- The 59th meeting of the series between North Dakota and North Dakota State had a distinctive UND flavor.

UND, which had only won one of the past eight meetings, used a

pair of scoring runs to an impressive 91-67 win Saturday night at the Hyslop Sports Center. The 24-point win was the biggest by UND since a March, 1990 meeting when the Sioux won 90-58.

Led by the sister act of Tiffany and Jamie Pudenz, UND’s defense smothered the Bison guards, causing NDSU to commit an uncharacteristic 25 turnovers.The Pudenz sisters effectively harassed anyone willing to bring the ball up the court for NDSU.

"Any time you have Jamie and Tiffany guarding the ball carrier, you’re going to get a lot of turnovers," said UND head coach Gene Roebuck. "I certainly wouldn’t want to have them guard me."

"The key to the game was our defensive pressure," UND forward Elisha Kabanuk said. "It set the tone for the whole game."

Offensively, UND came out strong straight from the opening tip. The Sioux moved the ball inside to Jenny Crouse as she scored 10 of UND’s first 14 points.Crouse, who had a game-high 19 points, led the Sioux to an early 12-2 run and UND never looked back.

After establishing an inside game, Katie Richards, Mandy Arndtson, Jamie Pudenz and Tiffany Pudenz showed UND’s outside shooting prowess by connecting for multiple three-pointers. The Sioux went 7-of-17 from three-point range in the first half and ended the game 10-of-26. By comparison, the Bison were 4-of-13 and only had one three in the first half.

The outside shooting display accounted for several baskets as the Sioux closed the half with an 18-7 run.

The Pudenz sisters also did their part offensively, combining for 34 points and nine assists to go with eight steals.

"I came out kind of flat at the beginning of the game. Then I realized that I needed to do something different to break out of my slump," said Tiffany Pudenz.

"We came relaxed and just wanted to have fun," Jamie Pudenz added. "We were able to take it to them right away."

While UND’s offense had no problem, the Bison couldn’t seem to establish any kind of consistency with their offensive game plan.

"We didn’t play offense the whole game. Basically, we were

playing defense the whole game and you can’t do that if you expect to win," Bison guard Rachael Otto said.

"As the game went on we didn’t make the any good adjustments," Head Coach Amy Ruley added.

The Bison were led in scoring by Theresa Lang, who scored 12 of her 14 points in the second half. Teammate Amy Ornell scored 13 points, 11 of which came in the first half.

Next up for North Dakota (9-1) will be a road game at South Dakota on Jan. 2. The Bison (8-2) travel to Morningside College.