The Valpo women's basketball team opened the Christmas City Classic in Bethlehem, Pa. on a strong note Saturday afternoon, forcing 26 turnovers defensively and scoring 33 points off those turnovers while shooting better than 50% from the floor with four players scoring in double figures in a 76-57 victory over North Dakota. With the win, the Beacons will play for the tournament title on Sunday afternoon.
 
How It Happened

• A strong start to the game forced a timeout from North Dakota less than four minutes in, as the Beacons opened on a 9-2 run — featuring seven points from fifth-year Leah Earnest (Stevens Point, Wis./SPASH).
• A 3-pointer from senior Katie Beyer (McHenry, Ill./McHenry) extended Valpo's lead to eight points before North Dakota ended the quarter with a 10-2 run to even the score at 14-14 through the opening 10 minutes.
• The Fighting Hawks hit a 3-pointer on their first possession of the second quarter, but Valpo limited UND to just one free throw over the next four minutes, allowing the Beacons to go on a 12-1 run — led by five points by sophomore Nevaeh Jackson (Fort Wayne, Ind./Northrop) — to pull out to a 26-18 lead.
• Another triple from Jackson gave Valpo a double-digit lead for the first time with 3:18 to play in the first half, and the Beacons eventually took a 36-28 lead into halftime. Valpo went 7-of-12 from the field and 6-of-7 from the foul line for a 22-point second quarter, scoring 13 of those points off of 11 North Dakota turnovers.
• Halftime did little to slow the Beacons' momentum offensively. Valpo scored on each of its first four possessions of the second half — a drive and finish from sophomore Raeven Raye-Redmond (Trotwood, Ohio/Trotwood Madison), free throws from Earnest and back-to-back 3-pointers by junior Maci Rhoades (Beavercreek, Ohio/Beavercreek [Radford]) and Jackson — to push its lead to 46-30 and force a timeout from the Fighting Hawks.
• North Dakota dropped the lead to 12 just past the halfway mark of the third quarter, but Valpo outscored UND 11-5 over the remainder of the frame, capped by a short jumper by Beyer which beat the buzzer to give the Beacons a 60-42 edge with 10 minutes to play. Valpo went 8-of-12 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, in the third quarter and assisted on all eight baskets while committing just two turnovers.
• Beyer continued her strong afternoon by scoring Valpo's first five points of the fourth quarter, in the process pushing the lead up over the 20-point mark. A runner from freshman Lexi Castator (Fort Wayne, Ind./Northrop) with 6:41 to play pushed the Beacons' lead to its apex at 23, and the Fighting Hawks got no closer than 16 the rest of the way.

 
Inside the Game

• The story of the game was the Beacons' ability to force turnovers and capitalize off of the Fighting Hawks' miscues. North Dakota committed 26 turnovers, the second straight game Valpo's opponent has turned it over 26 times.
• Remarkably, Valpo then turned those turnovers into 33 points on the offensive end, finishing the game with a 33-9 advantage in points off turnovers. The 33 points off turnovers, the +24 edge in that category and the 26 turnovers forced are all single-game highs since Feb. 22, 2020 at Loyola, when Valpo was 38-4 in points off turnovers after forcing 31 Rambler miscues.
• It was a total team effort to force the North Dakota turnovers. 11 of those miscues were Beacon steals, but no single player had more than two steals and seven different players had at least one theft.
• Valpo is forcing an MVC-best 21 turnovers/game from its opponents on the season.
• Offensively, the Beacons featured balance as well, with four players finishing in double figures in the scoring column. It is the third time already this season Valpo has had four players score 10+ points in the same game after entering the year not having done so since Feb. 2023.
• Leading the way in the scoring department was Earnest with a game-high 18 points. The grad student also paced all players with eight rebounds and six assists — the latter tying her career high — while registering a career-best three blocked shots as well.
• Earnest is one of just two D-I players to reach all four of those marks in the same game this season and is the first Valpo player to do so in at least 15 years.
• Earnest moved up to 12^th in program history in career scoring during Saturday's win, surpassing Aimee Forsman on that chart. She is just 18 points away from cracking Valpo's all-time top-10 in the category.
• Beyer scored in double digits for the third time this season, coming off the bench with a career-high 16 points.
• Jackson connected on four 3-pointers on her way to 14 points, scoring in double digits for the sixth straight game. The sophomore dished out a trio of assists as well.
• Rounding out the double-figure scoring quartet was Rhoades, who scored 10 points for the second time in the Valpo uniform, going 4-of-7 from the field.
• Valpo's shooting percentages across the board were its highest of the season. The Beacons broke the 50% mark from the field for the first time this year, hitting 52.0% from the floor, and hit at a 43.5% clip from deep, knocking down 10 triples. They were 14-for-17 (82.4%) from the foul line as well.
• After allowing its first four D-I opponents of the year to hit at a 48.9% clip from the 3-point line and average 11 3-pointers/game, Valpo limited North Dakota to 3-of-19 shooting from deep Saturday.
• Valpo did all this despite only one player hitting the 30-minute mark on Saturday, only two players playing more than 25 minutes and 10 players seeing at least 10 minutes of action.
• One notable streak did come to an end Saturday, as the Fighting Hawks ended the matchup with a narrow 34-32 advantage in points in the paint, snapping the Beacons' streak of five consecutive games with the advantage inside — the first time they had put together a stretch of games like that since 2010.

 
Thoughts From Coach Evans
"I thought it was a good day — it was the most consistent 40-minute performance we've had this year, both from an offensive and a defensive perspective."
 
"A big part of our defensive game plan was to be aggressive with our switching — North Dakota has a dribble drive oriented offense, and so we wanted to be really aggressive and take them out of that. We did a really good job of doing that, turning them back into more ball screens on the perimeter and making them try to force the ball inside with passes with us fronting the bigs."
 
"We ran our offense today with great tempo. For the most part, we were organized — we were sprinting to screens and off screens, we were working the whole width of the floor, we moved the ball side-to-side, we got multiple drives on possessions. We really shared the ball well."
 
"We've preached trusting each other and playing as one team, and today was a really good representation of the things we've been talking about. We had balance scoring, with three starters and one player off the bench in double figures. We were able to spread our minutes really well across the board, which is important when you're facing back-to-back games. More than that, though, everyone who got in came in and did something positive with their minutes. They played within themselves, really focused on playing great defense and sticking to our game plan offensively."
 
Next Up
Valpo (3-4) looks for its third consecutive victory and the Christmas City Classic title on Sunday afternoon as it faces off with host Lehigh at 1:30 p.m. CT. The game will be available on ESPN+.