MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Minnesota State University Moorhead women's basketball team ended the regular season with a tough 69-67 home loss to the University of Mary in action Saturday at Nemzek Fieldhouse in Moorhead, Minn.
Megan Hintz surpassed 1,500 career points in the loss to Mary. (Photo by Brook Manske)
MSUM fell to 17-12 overall and 12-10 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference while Mary improved to 21-10 overall and 15-7 in the league.
The Dragons will be the No. 4 seed out of the north division. As a result of the five seed from the south having the same conference record and winning the tiebreaker (Winona State) winning the head to head matchup with MSUM), the Dragons will travel to Winona State for the first-round of the Sanford Health/NSIC Tournament on Wednesday. Game time will be 5:30 p.m.
Sophomore forward
Peyton Boom led MSUM with 16 points. She added six rebounds.
Megan Hintz had 11 points and a team-best seven rebounds while sophomore guard
Nicole Herbranson added 14 points, tying a career-high. Sophomore guard
Natalie Steichen had three assists. Junior guard
Sarah Jacobson had nine points and five rebounds for MSUM.
MSUM shot 33.3 percent (22-of-66) for the game while the Marauders shot 48.1 percent (25-of-52). The Dragons outrebounded the Marauders 39-34, including 14-3 on the offensive glass.
MSUM led by five at 53-48 after three quarters thanks to a basket from Boom. The lead stood at 55-50 early in the fourth but the Marauders went on 14-5 run over the next six-plus minutes to take a 64-60 lead with 1:59 left. The Dragons were down 67-65 with 14 seconds left but tied the game on a Herbranson basket with nine seconds left.
Mary's Macy Williams was fouled with 5.8 seconds left and hit two free throws to push the lead to 69-67. The Dragons didn't have a timeout and pushed the ball ahead but were unable to get a shot off.
After jumping out to a 19-5 lead after one quarter, thanks to five points each from Herbranson and Jacobson, the Dragons added to the lead early in the second. A layup by Herbranson with 8:05 left in the first half pushed the lead to 26-7.
The Marauders cut into the gap, and closed the first half on a 13-0 run to cut the lead to 32-30 at halftime. From there, the biggest lead for either team was five points.
Steve d'Eustachio Stat of the Game: The Dragons did not secure a first-round home playoff game since the 2013/2014 season. The Dragons last away NSIC first-rounder resulted in a 90-78 loss at Augustana on Feb. 26, 2014, the anniversary of the first round this year.
