SIOUX FALLS – With 21 points from Mariah Szymanski, No. 16 University of Sioux Falls outscored Minot State, 49-25 in the second half, and rolled to an 83-52 win in the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Sanford Health Tournament on Wednesday at the Stewart Center.
Witht second straight victory, the Cougars captured their fifth straight opening round win and moved to 14-6 overall in the NSIC Tourney. The Cougars will face Winona State at 5:30 pm on Sunday (March 1) in the tournament quarterfinals at the Sanford Pentagon.
The win also likely clinched a spot in the Div. II NCAA Tournament for USF, which came into the night at No. 3 in the Central Region rankings. The top 8 teams in each of the eight regions comprise the 64-team field. The final rankings of the 42-team region will be released on Sunday, March 8.
“I am really pleased with our effort overall. We worked hard and fought through some issues in the second quarter. But we attacked and played strong on both sides of the court,” said USF Head Coach Travis Traphagen, who won for the 242nd time in his career.
“In the second half we found a rhythm. Everybody played well together as a team. When we go fast and do it in combination with each other then we are really good,” said Traphagen, whose team has recorded 25 wins for the second time in the NCAA DII era (2015-16).Szymanski, who scored nine points in the first quarter, reached 20 points in a game for the 11th time in her career.
She also moved into seventh place on the career three-point chart as she hit 3-of-4 and now has 170 for her career. With 21 points, she has 1,158 career points. USF also had double-digit points from senior Jessie Geer who had 13 to go with three rebounds. Senior guard Kaely Hummel added 11 points and now has 1,694 for her career. With another three she has 266 for her career, which ranks first all-time at USF.After USF took a 19-11 lead in the first quarter, MISU had a 16-15 edge in the second and trailed 37-34 at the break.
As has been the case frequently for USF, the Cougars used a big third quarter to build a double-digit lead. With a 21-9 advantage USF led 55-36 through three quarters. Then, USF hit five threes and rolled up a 28-16 advantage in the fourth quarter to earn the 83-52 win and a third straight win over the Beavers. In fact, USF earned its second win of the season and in both games scored over 80 points (87-54 at Minot State, Jan. 18).
Tonight, USF was 29-of-64 for 45.3 percent and hit on 9-of-23 from three-point range. However, USF was 8-of-14 in the second half which helped USF pull away. At the foul line, USF was effective as they made 16-of-19 for 84.2 percent. They also had a big edge inside with a 32-18 margin in paint points. And by forcing 13 turnovers while committing just six USF built an 18-10 margin in points over turnovers. In addition, USF had a 15-11 margin in second chance points and a 14-2 advantage in fast break points.
