Briar Cliff women beat #16 Dordt for third top-25 win

Briar Cliff women beat #16 Dordt for third top-25 win
November 24th, 2021 | Briar Cliff Athletics

For the third time this season, the Briar Cliff women’s basketball team has defeated an opponent ranked inside the top-25. The RV Chargers downed #16 Dordt 62-56 Tuesday night in the Newman Flanagan Center. BC moves to 5-2 overall and are 3-0 in GPAC play.
 
“I am super proud of how hard our team competed tonight from start to finish,” said head coach Brita Hand. “We had great contributions all around. Our scoring was diversified again tonight, not allowing them to focus in on just a couple of people.”
 
Halfway through the first quarter the Defenders held a 9-8 lead, but a Madelyn Deitchler bucket jump started a 12-0 Charger run over the next four minutes. Deitchler scored six points over that span and BC held a 21-12 lead after 10 minutes. 
 
The teams traded baskets for much of the second quarter, with the Chargers keeping the lead throughout. Dordt cut the deficit to one point with 1:12 remaining in the half, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Elaina Martinez pushed the Charger lead back to seven. The Defenders hit a trey in the closing moments of the half and BC took a 39-35 lead to halftime. 
 
It was a defensive battle in the second half, as Briar Cliff shot 32.0% compared to Dordt’s 30.8%. BC knocked down two treys in the final 20 minutes and held the Defenders to 1-of-12 from the 3-point line. Payton Slaughter paced the Cliff at the end, scoring seven of her nine points in the second half. Slaughter went 3-for-3 from the charity stripe, including a pair of free throws to ice the game in the final minute.
 
“We did a great job of playing as a team and buying into the game plan,” said Hand. “Defensively our press sparked our offense and allowed us to use our depth to wear them down. Down the stretch we did a great job of taking care of the ball and using our late game experience from close games last year to finish it out.”
 
Deitchler led the team with 12 points and seven rebounds, going 4-for-8 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Slaughter added four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Kaegan Held came off the bench to score 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Mya Hendry grabbed a game high 10 rebounds.
 
Ashtyn Veerbeek had 13 points and four blocks to lead the Defenders. Bailey Beckman and Mya Chmielewski added 11 and 10 points, respectively. 
 
The Chargers travel to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for an exhibition against Augustana University Saturday. BC returns to GPAC play next Wednesday in Orange City, Iowa at 6 p.m.

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