Women’s basketball split in first two home games
The Minnesota State women’s basketball team kicked off conference play in a 75-64 loss to the University of Minnesota-Duluth Tuesday.
The Mavs were heading into their home opener having lost their previous two games to Southern Nazarene University and Fort Hays State University in the Regional Crossover Challenge.
In the game against UMD, the Mavs had a 14-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Mavs were able to extend their lead to 24-17 in the second quarter, before the Bulldogs went on 14-7 run in the final three and a half minutes of the quarter to tie things up at 31 going into the half. The second half started as a tightly contested affair similarly to the first half, with both teams being tied at 41 after six minutes in the third quarter.
This was when the Bulldogs took control of the game and never looked back. The Bulldogs went on a 14-6 run to go into the fourth quarter up 55-47. The Mavs were able to cut the Bulldogs’ lead to two points in the fourth quarter after a Destinee Bursch layup and two Joey Batt free throws, but UMD went on a 16-7 run in the final five and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. Minnesota Duluth went 7-8 from the field during their run to close out the game.
UMD’s Taytum Rhoades led the team in scoring with 22 points. She also had six rebounds and three blocks. The Bulldogs went 6-12 from three-point range and shot 58% from the field. They also had the advantage in bench production. They had 25 bench points compared to the Mavs’ 11. Batt led the Mavs in scoring with 19 points. The Mavs shot only 14.3% from three-point range and 36.1% from the field.
In their next game, the Mavs were able to get their second win of the season in a 98-68 victory over the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Saturday.
At the end of the first quarter, the Mavs had a 24-22 lead. Early in the second quarter, two consecutive three pointers by Mackenzie Schweim put the Mavs up 35-28. Schweim scored six more points in the second quarter to help the Mavs go into halftime with a 50-36 lead.
The Mavs extended their lead to 64-42 halfway through the third quarter after three pointers from Emily Herzberg and Bailey Conrad. MSU went on to outscore the Rangers 12-9 the rest of the quarter and headed into the fourth quarter up 76-51. The Mavs shot 52.9% and outscored the Rangers 22-17 in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota State outrebounded the Rangers 44-25 and had 17 offensive rebounds that led to 21 second chance points for the Mavericks. The Mavs also shot a season-high 46.7% from three-point range. Schweim and Natalie Bremer led the way for the Mavs in scoring with 17 points each and Herzberg had 15 points.
“Our defense continues to create great opportunities for our team. Tonight, we capitalized on creating offense from our defense and converting second chance opportunities. We truly showed how our experience and depth is a great strength of ours. This is a great momentum builder for us heading into the grueling conference schedule,” Emilee Thiesse said in a press release on the Maverick Athletics website.
Up next for the Mavs is a matchup with the University of Sioux Falls Friday.
Header Photo: The win over the Rangers snaps a three-game losing streak for the Mavericks. They now look ahead to their matchup with Sioux Falls. (Courtesy of Maverick Athletics)
Write to Mohamed Warsame at mohamed.warsame@mnsu.edu