Women’s Basketball takes the conference
The Minnesota State, Mankato Women’s Basketball team now sits in first place in the NSIC South division after a weekend sweep on the road. The Mavs were able to take down both Wayne State and Augustana with ease which earned them the top spot in the NSIC South and gave the program its 800th win.
Mankato is currently ranked No. 14 with a record of 21-3. They are now on a seven-game win streak after beating Augustana Saturday. Augustana was in first place in the NSIC South and was on a 10-game win streak prior to Mankato beating them, 83-61.
Augustana lost their footing early in the game and was never able to regain themselves. In the first quarter alone, the Mavs forced 10 turnovers and by the five-minute mark in the second quarter, they had built a staggering 15-point lead. After that five-minute mark, the Mavs built an 11–8 run and found themselves leading 45-27 going into halftime. The Mavs pushed and kept a ruling 18-point lead through the last 20 minutes of play.
Mankato has been a defensive-focused team throughout the year specializing in turnovers with a hard press. In this game, it showed. They scored 35 points from turnovers alone as the defense forced 32 turnovers throughout the game. They were able to dismantle the Auggies offense all night.
They held Augustana’s star senior forward, Aislinn Duffy, to just five points in the win. Last week, Duffy earned her fourth NSIC player of the week after scoring 35 points and on Saturday the Mavs held her to 1-9 on field goals due to constant defensive pressure.
“We focused on stopping their talented offense, which we did,” said Mankato Head Coach, Emiliee Thiesse. “Duffy is so good at creating points off of rebounds and we were able to hold her to none.”
The Mavs also clicked offensively. Junior Guard Joey Batt scored 19 points while Freshman Natalie Bremer had 17 points on 7-12 shooting.
This weekend also brought Bremer her second NSIC South Division Player of the Week award. She recorded her career-high 26 points versus Wayne State as she connected on 10-12 shots from the field. She was lethal all weekend on a staggering 70.8% shooting while averaging 21.5 points per game. She also averaged 3.0 steals and 2.5 rebounds this past weekend.
Bremer’s 26-point game against Wayne State, Friday, helped secure the win for the Mavs. Wayne State is currently sitting near the bottom of the conference with a record of 7-13 in NSIC play. The game was close throughout but the Mavs found themselves on a 14-3 run in the final four minutes of regulation, which pushed the score to a Maverick win of 94-80.
The Mavericks shot 51.4% throughout the game and tallied 32 rebounds, 21 assists and 21 steals. Destinee Bursch also had a 17 point scoring game.
“This weekend felt really great,” said Thiesse. “I’m just really proud of this team. It is never easy to get a road sweep in the challenging NSIC South but we pulled away with two great wins. Our team continues to focus on one game at a time and executes each time.”
This weekend secured the Mavs a first-round bye in the south division of the NSIC post-season tournament. It also secured them a top-two seed. Two games remain of the regular season, one against Winona State at home Thursday and the last against Upper Iowa on the road Saturday.
Write to Luke Jackson at Luke.Jackson.2@mnsu.edu
Header photo: MSU Women’s Basketball extends their streak to seven straight wins after defeating Wayne State 94-80 Friday, Feb. 10 and Augustana 83-61 Saturday, Feb. 11. The Mavericks have reached their 800th win in the college’s history with the win against Augustana last weekend. (Dylan Long)