The following is courtesy of Dave Selvig, Jamestown Sun

With a team like the Jimmies have, playing cream puffs is pointless.

The challenge of a solid NSIC team is more to their liking and that was the case Tuesday night at the Civic Center.

Jamestown College already had one win under its belt against Bemidji State and nearly rallied for another win against an NCAA Division II team, but St. Cloud State scored the final eight points of the game to edge the Jimmies, 77-70.

It was listed as an exhibition game for the Jimmies, so no dent was added to their 7-1 record. It counted for the Huskies, though, as they opened their season against one NAIA team and two D-I squads.

"We want the challenge. Our girls like to play quality teams like that," JC coach Greg Ulland said. "It exposes your weaknesses and shows you where you need to improve. There's nothing wrong with knowing what you need to fix."

After a rugged first half, the Jimmies came racing out of the second-half gates, shooting into the lead with a 15-2 run after trailing by 10 (42-32) at the break.

"We played timid, a little scared in the first half against their pressure and were just out of sync," Ulland said. "We challenged them at halftime. We told them to go after them, it was kind of like, if we're going to go down, let's go down swinging."

They certainly did.

Hannah Steele and Kellie Schuneman scored back-to-back buckets in the first minute of the second half and 30 seconds later Carly Jensen rained in a three-pointer to cut the lead to three. Kayla Roemmich was next to score and that made it 42-41. Roemmich scored again a minute later to give the Jimmies their first lead at 45-44 since early on.

"That stretch was fun to watch," Ulland said. "That's the type of aggressiveness and execution we want."

The game was back and forth and entertaining the rest of the way.

The Huskies went up six at 63-57 on a three by Carley Jeffery, but the Jimmies came right back with consecutive long balls from Amber Ramlo and Morgan Mathison to tie it.

The Jimmies went up three at 68-65 on a tough runner from Kaeli Kraska with 4:50 to go, but the Jimmies scored just two points the rest of the way.

The Huskies took a 4-point lead late on consecutive tough running jumpers from Jordi Gerking to take the lead for good.

St. Cloud State made three free throws late, an all too familiar theme the last two games for the Jimmies. The Huskies made 27 of their 31 attempts from the stripe, while the Jimmies shot just 19 free throws and missed six of them. In their first loss of the season Saturday in Yankton, S.D., JC was whistled for 34 fouls, Mount Marty just nine.

"Defensively, we were a little too aggressive a couple of times and that played into it," said Ulland.

The Jimmies also turned it over 26 times, but forced 27 SCSU miscues.

Bridget Schuneman had a team-high 14 points. Steele dished out eight assists to go with her 11 points and Kellie Schuneman added 10.

Now the Jimmies get a much needed break. They've played five games in the last 11 days and are due for a break. They're back in action Tuesday at Minnesota-Morris.