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VALLEY CITY, ND  (NewsDakota.com)  Defending the home floor with a sweep is always sweet to open play in the conference, especially when you won’t continue conference play for a month.

The Vikings did just that, taking a hard-fought 66-60 win in womens play, and an athletic 82-70 win in mens play over Dickinson State Saturday at the W.E. Osmon Fieldhouse in Valley City.

A 42-15 run for the Viking women reversed a first-half 20-9 deficit and produced a 51-35 lead in the third quarter.  They eventually widened the lead to 57-40, before surrendering a 20-7 run that saw the lead fall to four at 64-60 with 15 seconds to play.

JayCee Richter calmly made four straight foul shots to ice the game, leading to the finish of her 16-point day, which also led the Viking scoring effort.  As a freshman who played volleyball this fall, it was an impressive effort for a player that had no preseason with the basketball team, and played only four non-conference games.

Adriana Torres added 12 points for the Vikings, Taryn Dieterle contributed 11, and Allie Negen tossed in nine points and grabbed five boards, three crucial offensive rebounds, to earn Ivy Real Estate Group Player of the Game honors.

In mens play, sophomore Joseph Owens had a banner day with 27 points in the victory.  He also quarterbacked a zone defense that produced 19 turnovers in the win.

Daevonte Munson added 12, and Duke Carey added 11.  The Vikings received 52 points off the bench to run away from the Bluehawks in the second half.

“The last two weeks, we’ve really seen a jump in our players knowing their roles,” said Viking head men’s coach Ryan Montgomery of the bench-scoring effort.  Several players contributed quality minutes off the bench in the win.

Both teams play at the University of Jamestown on Wednesday.