Lady Mavericks fall to the Huskies, end their season
The team lost to St. Cloud State in the first round of the NSIC Tournament Wednesday night
Kevin Korbel
Sports Editor
The Minnesota State women’s basketball team was eliminated in the first round of the NSIC Tournament at the hands of the St. Cloud State Huskies Wednesday night 63-80 in St. Cloud, Minnesota. With the loss, the 2018-19 basketball campaign is officially over for the team.
In the opening minutes of the game both teams came out firing from behind the arc, trading a pair of three-pointers and forcing several turnovers.
After a layup by MSU senior forward Ashley Reed, the St. Cloud State was trimmed to 11-9 with 3:53 to go in the first quarter.
Coming out of the media timeout, the Huskies went on a 7-1 run to close out the quarter, taking an 18-10 lead into the second.
In the second quarter, the Mavericks struggled to garner any momentum during the quarter, being outscored 9-17 by the Huskies in the quarter. The story of the half was the Huskies’ lockdown defense, as they forced the Mavericks to shoot only 34 percent from the floor, as the Mavericks went into the half down 35-19.
Both offenses opened up in the third quarter, as the Mavericks scored 20 points during the period, but the Huskies hung in there with the Mavericks, scoring 17 points of their own to hold a 52-39 going into the fourth.
In the fourth quarter, it looked as if Minnesota State would make a small run for the Huskies’ money, as they trimmed the lead to 10 points several on several occasions late in the quarter, but were unable to close the gap beyond that during the rest of the game, as the Huskies ran away with the 80-63 victory on the night.
A pair of sophomore forwards led the Mavericks in scoring on the night, with Brooke Tonsfeldt scoring 13 points while adding seven rebounds and steals as well as four assists, followed by Tayla Stuttley scoring 12 points of her own.
Junior forward Taylor Drost finished with 10 points on the night.
As a team, Minnesota State shot 33 percent from the floor compared to St. Cloud State, who shot 48 percent from the field. The Mavericks stole the ball 13 times in the game and forced a total of 19 turnovers from the Huskies.
The team ends the season with an overall record of 14-13 on the season, which is an improvement of one extra win from last season.
Feature photo by Nidia Sepulveda | MSU Reporter.