MANKATO — Swarming pressure defense fueled a game-opening 17-0 surge Saturday as Minnesota State overwhelmed Southwest Minnesota State 78-50 in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference women’s basketball game at Bresnan Arena.
Minnesota State, which outscored the Mustangs (2-6, 1-2 in Northern Sun) 47-9 off turnovers, received 21 points, three assists, three rebounds and seven steals from 5-foot-5 senior guard Joey Batt. Sophomore guard Natalie Bremer ended up with 14 points and a trio of steals, while junior guard Destinee Bursch and sophomore guard Hannah Herzog tallied nine points apiece.
“Even in practice, our message has been pressure defense,” said Batt, a New Ulm native. “We’ve been trying to get our defense to jump start our offense so that’s what we’ve been focusing on. Our defense definitely starts our offense so it’s important to get those stops to set the tone and the pace of the game.
“I feel like we’re a very unselfish team and we’re always looking to pass the ball to get those good looks. We like to make one more pass to get the great shots instead of the good shots. … We have the people confident enough to take those shots.”
Bremer converted four free throws and a layup off a turnover to get the Mavericks (5-4, 2-1) off and running before Emily Herzberg’s hoop off a miscue set up Batt’s five-point flurry — a reverse layup off a baseline drives and three-point play off a slicing drive — to make it 13-0. Ava Stier then rolled in an 8-footer before Bursch’s baseline jumper capped the 17-point burst.
“It was a quick start for us,” Bremer said. “Our goal was to get a spark right away and see what we could do with it. We really focus on getting steals and creating turnovers.
“Our coach always talks about staying the course because every game is going to have peaks and valleys. Hopefully, we’re going to have more peaks than valleys. We just need to stay together.”
After the Mustangs trimmed the lead to 26-15, Batt’s three-point play off an underhand scoop helped send Minnesota State into the second quarter with a 29-17 advantage. SMSU continued to hang in there.
However, Mackenzie Schweim’s top-of-the-key 3-pointer, along with Batt’s off-balance eight-footer and 14-footer off the right baseline, helped the Mavericks gain a 47-31 lead at the break.
After Waseca native Madson Gehloff’s driving hoop trimmed the margin to 59-48 two minutes into the fourth quarter, Batt’s two free throws, along with Herzberg’s head-on eight-footer and right-side triple, triggered a 13-0 run that produced a 72-48 with 5:25 to go.
Herzberg finished with eight points and six rebounds. Gehloff led the Mustangs with 14 points and three assists.
“Our team has done a good job throughout the season of starting out hot,” Minnesota State coach Emielle Thiesse said. “We were able to get some good momentum and build a pretty safe cushion. Give Southwest credit. They did a nice job of clawing their way back in there so having that cushion took the pressure off.
“We forced 32 turnovers, and we’ve done that before but we didn’t convert off them. … It was good to see our kids keep their composure and capitalize on that.”
The Mavericks play Augustana on Friday.