VALLEY CITY  (VCSU)   – The Valley City State and University of Jamestown women’s basketball teams delivered another classic rivalry game Wednesday night, battling to a two-point contest in Valley City.

Jamestown’s Noelle Josephson scored inside to break a 52-52 tie with 50 seconds remaining, and the Jimmies held on in the final seconds for a 56-54 win.

After Josephson’s bucket, the Vikings had chances to answer back, but a turnover with 31 seconds to go led to a Jimmie free throw. Valley City State’s Mackenzie Huber was fouled inside and made both free throws with 17 seconds left, bringing VCSU to within 55-54. Emma Stoehr went just 1-for-2 on the other end for Jamestown, but Valley City State was unable to convert in the final seconds. Dierra Diegel‘s 3-pointer from the left corner was off the mark, and Huber was stripped as she went up for a putback with time expiring.

Valley City State drops to 4-6 overall this season, while the University of Jamestown improves to 7-7. The Vikings and Jimmies split their season series, with the Vikings winning 67-55 back on Nov. 5 in Jamestown.

Jamestown scored the first seven points of the game and led 17-9 after the first quarter. The Jimmies built their largest lead of the game, 24-12, early in the second quarter. Valley City State lost starting point guard Kate Williams to an injury with 5:06 left in the second quarter. The Vikings trailed 28-19 at the time but rallied around the loss of their floor general, ending the half with a 10-5 run and cutting the halftime deficit to 33-29.

Valley City State could not take the lead in the third, but cut the deficit to one point on Annie Swenson‘s putback late in the quarter, making it 45-44 entering the fourth. On the opening possession of the fourth quarter, the Vikings took their first and only lead of the game after Huber’s 14-foot jumper made it 46-45. The teams were then tied at 48-48 before Jamestown took a 52-48 lead with 7:16 remaining. The Viking defense held Jamestown scoreless over the next six minutes and baskets by VCSU’s Hannah Schlecht and Alli Vandal tied the game at 52-52 with 1:54 to go.

Neither team took great care of the ball as they combined to commit 40 turnovers, including 21 by VCSU and 19 by the Jimmies.

Viking junior Mackenzie Huber led all scorers with 19 points. She added six rebounds and two blocks for VCSU, and went 7-for-8 at the free throw line. Emily Schafer scored six points off the bench for VCSU, all coming at the free throw line. Vandal, Williams, Swenson and Gabby Martin all scored five points each. Diegel and Schlecht each had eight rebounds for the Vikings, who held a 39-27 advantage on the glass.

Emma Stoehr led the Jimmies with 15 points and four assists, while Paige Schmidt scored 10.

Valley City State shot 34 percent overall (16-47), 25 percent on 3-pointers (3-12) and 79 percent at the free throw line (19-24). Jamestown finished the game at 41 percent overall (23-56), 17 percent on 3’s (3-18) and 50 percent at the line (7-14).

Up next: Valley City State is off until Dec. 28-29 when they travel to San Francisco, Calif., for two games at the Menlo College Classic.