Trojans Claim Fourth Straight Conference Title with Weekend Sweep & Savannah Walsdorf hits 2K Points

The #10 ranked Trojan Women’s Basketball team got back to their winning ways this weekend with a sweep of Valley City State 106-49 and Dickinson State 93-59 on Senior Night.

DSU improves to 23-5 overall and 11-1 in the North Star Athletic Association. They lost the coin toss for the number one seed during halftime of the men’s game against Dickinson State. They’ll enter the NSAA Postseason Tournament as the two seed.

With the wins, Dakota State clinched a share of the regular season conference title with #12 ranked Mayville State. It’s the fourth straight regular season title for the Trojans dating back to 2021. Their first four-peat as regular season champs since 1987-90.

Friday vs Valley City State

Action kicked off on Friday when the Trojans set a new season-high scoring mark of 106 points. That total is tied for 10th most points in a single game all-time. It was powered by a scorching hot opening quarter where the Trojans nailed 10 threes on 70% shooting from the field.

The offense from the Vikings struggled all night long and it showed. Shooting just 24.2% from the field and 23.1% from deep. DSU tied a season-high with 21 steals against VCSU. Valley City turned the ball over 26 times, with 18 of them coming in the first half. The Trojans had 30 points off turnovers and their 70 first half points was a new season-high mark. They also tied their season-high in rebounds with 47.

Leading the Vikings in scoring was their lone double figure scorer, Jaycee Ritcher, who finished with 12 points. Ashleyn Diemert was held scoreless by DSU, going 0-10 from the field.

Savannah Walsdorf led the scoring effort in the game with 25 points to lead all scorers. She’s also one of four Trojans to hit three or more threes in the game. The others being Caitlin Dyer, who had a career-high 20 points in the game and all four of her threes coming in that first quarter. All of Walsdorf’s made threes were in the first quarter as well.

Angela Slattery also nailed four threes, with all of her threes and her 18 points coming in the first half. Miakken Vincent hit all of her threes in a row for the second time in the last three games and finished with 11 points off the bench.

Saturday vs Dickinson State

On Saturday, they asserted their dominance once again. With their 93 points against Dickinson State, they notched at least 199 points for the weekend for the second time in conference this season. With the first time coming against these same two teams on Jan. 12 & 13 when they had 200 combined for the weekend.

Also in this game, more Trojan history occurred as Walsdorf hit 2,000 career points in the game against the Blue Hawks. It happened by way of a 3-pointer from an assist by Bria Wasmund with 7:27 left in the third quarter. Becoming just the second Trojan basketball player ever and first women’s basketball player to reach 2k points.

Dickinson State managed just 21 first half points, less than what DSU scored in each of the first two quarters. The offense was led in scoring by Katherine Fox with 11 points. He also tied her team-high of three assists with Heather LaBree.

The Trojans were led in scoring by Walsdorf who finished with 22 points. That marks her second time having back-to-back 20 or more point games and her fourth in the last six games. Following her, three other Trojans saw double figures. Vincent had 12 points off the bench, Tabor Teel added 11 off the bench and Olivia Ritter scored 10 off the bench. Ritter also finished with a season-high eight rebounds and Teel had a game-high 11 rebounds for a double-double.

Next Game

Next the Trojans will be in the NSAA Postseason Tournament where they’re set to take on the seven seed Waldorf Warriors on Wednesday in the DSU Fieldhouse at 5:30pm