MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Minnesota State University Moorhead women's basketball team opened NSIC/Sanford Health Tournament play with a 70-53 win over Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday at the Nemzek Fieldhouse in Moorhead, Minn. With the win, MSUM advances to the tournament quarterfinals where it will face Sioux Falls at 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
MSUM is now 23-4 on the year while SMSU ended the season 5-21.
The Dragons were led by freshman guard
Kiley Borowicz who had a game-high 21 points. Sophomore forward
Megan Hintz had 12 points and eight rebounds. Junior guard
Jacky Volkert had nine points, eight rebounds and eight rebounds.
MSUM shot 42.4 percent (25-of-59) from the field for the game while holding the Mustangs to 33.3 percent (19-of-57) from the field. The Dragons had a 46-30 edge in rebounds.
A 24-8 first quarter advantage set the tone for MSUM. Borowicz had eight first-quarter points while Volkert had seven. The Dragons took a 41-21 lead into halftime, with Borowicz scoring 10 points and Sannes scoring nine. MSUM shot 48.5 percent (16-of-33) in the first half while holding the Mustangs to 25.9 percent shooting (7-of-27). The big advantage MSUM had in the first half was rebounds, where the Dragons had a 27-11 edge over the Mustangs.
SMSU took advantage of a cold-shooting third quarter by the Dragons to cut the gap to 10 after three frames. The Mustangs outscored MSUM 20-10 in the third as the Dragons hit just 2-of-12 field goal attempts in the third quarter.
The Dragons opened the fourth quarter on an 8-2 run to push the lead back to 59-43, with Hintz accounting for four points. From there, the Dragon lead never dropped below 13 points.
Senior forward
Drew Sannes had nine points, eight rebounds and five blocks.
MSUM will face the University of Sioux Falls at 8 p.m. on Sunday at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: Tonight was the fifth straight home win in the playoffs for the Dragons. The last time the Dragons were eliminated at home was in a 61-48 setback to St. Cloud St. on Mar. 4, 2009.
