MANKATO — When you’re the No. 2 team in the nation with a perfect record of 22-0 it’s safe to say you don’t face a whole lot of adversity.
That sums up Minnesota State women’s basketball entering Thursday’s NSIC tilt against Sioux Falls. The Mavericks ultimately improved to 23-0 with a 75-52 win, but by no accounts did it come easy after a frustratingly slow start.
“We needed this,” MSU senior Mackenzie Schweim said. “It was good for us.”
If there was one word to sum up MSU’s offense in the first half, it would be dreary. The Mavericks went 10 of 36 from the floor and was 1 of 3 from beyond the arc.
While the Mavericks defense, to the surprise of few, held strong, they walked into halftime tied 27-27 with 11 points off turnovers and 12 points in the paint.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” Schweim said. “Our defense fuels us, so we don’t totally rely on our offense. We know that if we keep buying into our defense that our offense is going to come around and shots are going to fall.”
Then the home team began to find offense in the third quarter. MSU finished 11 of 24 from the floor and 5 of 7 from the free throw line for a 27 point outburst, the same number of points it mustered in the first half to take a 54-37 lead with 10 minutes remaining.
SFU pulled within 10 points with 7:46 to go, but MSU proved to be too much. The Mavericks finished 8 of 17 from the floor and were 2 of 4 from 3-point range in the fourth frame.
It also helped that the Mavericks found scoring depth while the Cougars couldn’t. MSU saw Natalie Bremer and Schweim be the lone players to finish in double figures with 12 and 10 points respectively. Ryhan Holmgren and Hannah Herzig each scored nine points. Ava Stier and Mallory Czinano each had eight points.
On the other hand the Cougars saw three players score in double figures. Krista Langager led all players with 16 points. Anna Vaaler earned a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Alexis Rose earned 13 points.
Outside of the trio, Sioux Falls got a combined eight points from three players. In the end, MSU’s bench outscored the Cougars bench 34-2.
Thursday’s game did bring its fair share of adversity. Yet, it came at a time where the Mavericks were, to an extent, prepared for it.
Throughout the week in practice head coach Emilee Thiesse set up drills and situations to simulate playing from behind and rallying while things looked bleak to see how the team would respond. Fortunately those drills and situations came to good use.
“I think we still have some work to do in how we respond,” Thiesse said. “We really came together at halftime and talked about (how) we have to start worrying about the defense and start worrying about the offense.”
The Mavericks look to go 24-0 at 1 p.m. Saturday against Southwest Minnesota State.