Once Jenny Crouse broke UND's career scoring record, it only seemed fitting that the 6-foot-3 Sioux All-America would shatter any St. Cloud State hopes of an upset.
"Jenny can dominate the game at any time,"UND point guard Jaime Pudenz said."She may not think so because she's so modest. But I think so."
Crouse's 28 points -- 13 coming in the final 11 minutes -- along with her 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and 5 steals carried the Sioux to a harder-than-expected 90-74 win over St. Cloud on Friday night at the Hyslop Sports Center.
Her down-the-stretch dominance, however, was overshadowed by what took place at the 16:27 mark. Taking a feed from Katie Richards, Crouse scored on a fast-break layup to become UND's career scoring leader. The senior from Freeport, Ill., broke the old record of 1,941 points scored by former standout Sheri Kleinsasser, now a Sioux assistant.
The game was halted and Crouse, who received a standing ovaition, received the game ball from Kleinsasser near center court.
She then preceded to deliver the Sioux from near disaster.
St. Cloud -- a big, athletic team able to limit UND's perimeter shooting -- trailed 55-54 after Jessica Forsline scored a fast-break basket with 11:09 remaining.
However, the Sioux responded with a 12-1 run for the breathing room they needed. Crouse, repeatedly maneuvering to get open in the paint, scored six of the 12 and continued to dominate as the Huskies never came closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
UND led 38-30 at halftime but could have had a bigger lad had not been for its 38-percent shooting. Crouse contributed to that below-normal shooting as she was only 4 of 13.
"I shot the ball poorly in the first half,"Crouse said."It was a physical game. Maybe I worked harder in the second half. But we were talking more as a team and we picked up our defense. We had some breakdowns in the first half.
"But St. Cloud has a good team. They deserve more credit than they're getting."
The Huskies, the hard-luck team in the North Central Conference, dropped to 1-5, but three prior losses were by a combined five points. St. Cloud was led by Christine Williamson's 21 points and the Sioux also discovered that freshman point guard Nicole Persby (14 points, 6 rebounds) will be a force for the Huskies.
"St. Cloud played well,"UND coach Gene Roebuck said."They took things away from us, like the 3-pointer. But I thought our post players worked hard inside. And Jenny and Kami (Winger) came up with big games."
The Sioux, who improved to 6-0 in the NCC and 15-0 overall, wanted to go inside with Crouse and the 6-2 Winger since the Huskies were relatively inexperienced inside.
Winger, with a strong first half, finished with 15. Richards added 12 and also came up with 12 rebounds as she showed no signs of a neck injury that sidelined her in last week's game at Morningside.
"Katie (Richards) is such a key player for them,"St. Cloud coach Lori Ulferts said."And Jenny is such a constant. With those two, they're dynamic."
And with the constant play of Pudenz, the No. 1-ranked Sioux now have put together a 43-game winning streak.
But Pudenz, whose 19 points put her over the 1,000-point mark, deflected all credit to Crouse.
"Jenny is the reason we won,"Pudenz said.
| UND (90) | |||
| Name | FG | FT | Points |
| Pudenz | 7 | 4-6 | 19 |
| Jones | 2 | 4-11 | 9 |
| Hoffner | 1 | 4-4 | 7 |
| Winger | 7 | 1-4 | 15 |
| Super | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Carroll | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Richards | 4 | 4-4 | 12 |
| Crouse | 10 | 8-9 | 28 |
| Totals | 31 | 25-39 | 90 |
| St. Cloud (74) | |||
| Persby | 5 | 4-6 | 14 |
| Brand | 4 | 4-5 | 12 |
| Higgins | 3 | 4-6 | 11 |
| Watkins | 1 | 0-0 | 2 |
| Forsline | 5 | 1-2 | 11 |
| Williamson | 7 | 5-6 | 21 |
| Moberg | 0 | 0-0 | 0 |
| Blade | 1 | 0-1 | 2 |
| Thomsen | 0 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Totals | 26 | 19-28 | 74 |