Consistency name of game for women’s basketball

The Minnesota State women’s basketball team have gone back to their winning ways over the past couple of weeks. Over the past four games, the Mavericks are 3-1 following a five-game losing streak. This most recent weekend, the Mavericks split the two games 1-1. In their first game they traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D. to take on the University of Sioux Falls. Unfortunately, they fell short. The next day, they traveled to Marshall, Minnesota to take on Southwest Minnesota State University, where they bounced back with a victory.

In the Sioux Falls game, the score was kept relatively close, but the Mavericks just couldn’t pull through. In the first quarter, the score was tied at nine with about four minutes left, until the Cougars went on a 10-0 run to give themselves a comfortable lead. The Mavericks spent the rest of the quarter chipping away at the deficit to find themselves down five at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter was much of the same thing. The Mavericks let the deficit almost get out of hand. With three minutes left, they found themselves down 37-24. MSU shut down USF for the rest of the quarter, and went on a 10-0 run of their own to finish the half down 37-34.

The third quarter went back-and-forth, yet the Cougars kept the lead steady. By the end of the third, the Cougars were up 61-55. The Mavericks needed to make a run in the fourth quarter, and they kept the deficit manageable up until that point. The Cougars increased their lead to 12 points and sustained that lead for the rest of the game, as the Mavs ultimately lost 84-72.

The Mavericks were slightly out-rebounded and out-scored in the paint, however the main problem was their 35 percent shooting from the field, while Sioux Falls shot 48 percent. Senior point guard Britney Scherber led MSU in scoring with 19 points.

Next up for the Mavericks was Southwest Minnesota State. SMSU jumped out to an early lead and was able to sustain that lead for the entire first half. By halftime, MSU was trailing by nine points.

The second half was a completely different story. With four minutes left in the third quarter, MSU tied up the score up at 45. MSU kept the momentum going, as they built up a lead of their own. With ten seconds left in the third, MSU was ahead by eight points, but Jamie Spicer of SMSU hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the lead down to five.

The Mavs were rolling in the fourth quarter. They outscored the Mustangs 29-17 in the fourth and ended up beating them by 17 points, 87-70. Freshman guard Taylor Klug was the leading scorer for the Mavericks with 18 points. Senior forward Karina Schroeder added 17 points, and junior forward Claire Zeigler notched her fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

With the win, the Mavericks are currently sitting at 10-8 overall with a 6-8 conference record.

“A big factor towards our success in a few of our recent games deals directly with our focus and commitment on the defensive end,” head coach Emilee Thiesse said. “When we play solid defense and when we make plays with our defense, it ignites our team and gets us going on offense.”

MSU will face Minnesota-Crookston and Bemidji State on the road this weekend. The first game against UMC is on Friday at 6 p.m., while the BSU game is set for Saturday at 4 p.m.