NAIA Sweet 16: Black Hills St. 63, Eastern Oregon 48

SIOUX CITY, Iowa. - No. 3 seed Black Hills State (S.D.) surged to a large second half lead en route to a 63-48 over Eastern Oregon in the second round of the17th annual NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship at the Tyson Events Center/Gateway Arena in Sioux City, Iowa.

Black Hills State (28-5) used a late first half surge to distance themselves from the Mountaineers to take a 30-21 halftime lead. Eastern Oregon could not find an answer for Dakota States inside presence as the Yellow Jackets amassed 38 points in the paint on the evening.

Black Hills was led offensively by Lacey Haughian with 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the field while Snjezana Dojcinovic and Katelynn Lamb each added 10 points apiece for the Yellow Jackets.

Eastern Oregon (25-6) was led offensively by Sheena Henderson with 13 points while Jenny Fiso added 11 points off the bench for the Mountaineers.

Black Hills State advances to the quarterfinals to take on Northwestern (Iowa) at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday.

Wee hours of the morning, Saturday, March 14, 2008

Well, I'm back in my motel room after watching our Lady Mountaineers play their hearts out tonight, but those baskets just wouldn't drop in this game. Sure, they'll be disappointed to have lost this game, but with every step they took that brought them to this national championship level, I know we are all enormously proud of them. They represented Eastern Oregon University with class, heart, and soul. And now, they can truly let down a bit and just enjoy being together and reminisce over how great this season has been.

We were joined tonight in support of the Mountaineers by the Holy Names basketball team from California and my, were they a rowdy bunch! It has been great to see the west coast teams (SOU, Holy Names, and us) come together for each other. Most of the teams that make it to this tournament are from the mid-west portion of the U.S., so we "real" westerners stick together.

For our men and our women, congratulations all around for making it to the "Sweet 16." See you back in La Grande and thank you, parents, students, colleagues, and community friends for your tremendous support of Eastern Oregon University basketball this season. It's been a wonderful ride!

-EOU Interim President, Dixie Lund