Women's Basketball | 2/20/2018 2:39:00 PM

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The Minnesota State University Moorhead women's basketball team opens Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference/Sanford Health Tournament play on Wednesday when it hosts Southwest Minnesota State. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. at Nemzek Fieldhouse.

Although all home events in all sports are free for MSUM students to attend, these are NSIC events and ticketing rules are not set by MSUM Dragon Athletics.  The MSUM Student Activities Budget Committee has agreed to purchase all student tickets for Wednesday's game.

MSUM, which has won back-to-back NSIC regular season titles and three straight NSIC North Division crowns, is looking for its first-ever NSIC tournament title.

MSUM will meet SMSU for an 83rd time and the Dragons lead the series 42-40.  The Dragons have won seven straight meetings in the series, including a 66-51 win over SMSU in January.

In the first Central Region rankings released on Feb. 14, MSUM was ranked third behind Southwestern Oklahoma State and Central Missouri. The winners of the NSIC, MIAA and GAC postseason tournaments receive automatic berths while five teams will earn at-large berths to the tournament.  MSUM is looking for its second straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

The Dragons (22-4, 19-3 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) split at home last weekend, beating St. Cloud State, 70-54 on Friday before losing to Minnesota Duluth, 59-47 on Saturday.

Junior guard Jacky Volkert leads MSUM at 14.0 points and 5.5 assists per game. She also has a team-best 27 steals. Sannes averages 13.8 points and 9.1 rebounds per game, while sophomore forward Megan Hintz is averaging 11.9 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.  Senior guard Cassidy Thorson is averaging 10.5 points per game and leads with 68 three-pointers.  

As a team MSUM scores 72.0 points per game and shoots 41.4 percent from the field.  On defense MSUM allows 60.4 points per game. MSUM outrebounds its foes 43.8-34.0 and lead sthe NSIC in rebound margin.

Karla Nelson is in her 18th season as the MSUM head coach with a record of 324-186.

About SMSU
The Mustangs have lost four in a row and nine of 10, including two close home losses to Minnesota State (56-53) and Concordia-St. Paul (70-68) last weekend. SMSU's last win came on Feb. 3 against Mary, 73-58.

SMSU is led in scoring by Caleigh Rodning at 12.8 points per game. She also leads in rebounding at 7.6 per contest and assists (2.0). Erin Baxter averages 10.8 points per game while Sadie Stelter 8.4. Freshman Abuk Akol averages 2.0 blocks per game.

The Mustangs average 62.4 points per game and shoot 36.5 percent from the field.  They are being outrebounded 40.7-38.4 and allow 71.2 points per game on defense.

 Tom Webb is in his second season as SMSU's head coach with a record of 8-45  at the school.