BURNSVILLE, Minn. – Powered by a record-breaking scoring performance, University of Sioux Falls Women's Basketball Mariah Szymanski was named the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference south division player of the week in a release on Monday afternoon. Szymanski earns her first career player of the week honor after she broke the USF single-game scoring record with 43 points in a win over Concordia-St. Paul, improving USF's record to 13-5, 10-4 in the NSIC.
 
A 5-foot-6 guard from Pulaski, Wis., Szymanski also becomes the second consecutive USF Women's Basketball player to earn the weekly honor from the NSIC after Kaely Hummel received the award last week. Szymanski is the fifth different Cougar to receive the accolade and it is the ninth time in USF's history that a USF Women's Player has been named NSIC player of the week.
 
On Saturday night, Szymanski was on point from start to finish as she broke USF's single-game scoring record with 43 points, passing Dawn Morrison (1992) and Janice Ball (1974), who previously held the record of 42 points. Szymanski's scoring mark is tied for the most in a single game this season among all NCAA Division II women's basketball players, she became the leading single-game scorer for all NSIC players this year and she was one point shy of tying the conference record for points in a game.
 
Beyond her scoring total against Concordia-St. Paul, which helped the Cougars to an 84-56 road victory, how she accumulated her points broke numerous more records. Szymanski sank nine 3-pointers on just 10 attempts, breaking the USF record for both made 3-pointers in a game and three-point field goal percentage (minimum six made) with a 90 percent mark on Saturday. After knocking down her first three threes, she missed her only attempt from deep then proceeded to knock down six consecutive threes for the USF record. With five additional field goals, Szymanski set the USF Division II single-game mark for field goals in a game, connecting on 14 in just 20 attempts.
 
It was a special night from the start as Szymanski scored 17 points in the first quarter alone, and with a three-point play on the first possession of the second quarter, she had reached 20 points for the second time in her career in just 10:09 of game time. She made seven of her first eight shots, and combined with backcourt teammate and then-reigning NSIC player of the week Kaely Hummel for the Cougars' first 32 points and an 11-point lead.
 
Through three quarters, Szymanski had scored 34 points, matching Concordia-St. Paul's total as the Cougars held a 64-34 lead fueled by Szymanski's shooting and defense. Matched up with the NSIC's leading scorer and CSP's lead guard Anna Schmitt, Szymanski held her adversary to 17 points, four below her season average, on 18 shots with five turnovers.
 
Szymanski's run over the past five weeks culminated in her record-breaking performance. Earning the second start of her career against Chadron State, Szymanski scored 13 points and started a run of seven games with 12 or more points in nine contests. She increased her average from 5.9 points before her first start to now 11.5 points. In conference games, of which she's started nine of the 14, she is averaging 12.9 points per game, the 15th-most in the league.
 
Szymanski and USF look to keep rolling as they take their four-game winning streak on the road to face Northern State and MSU Moorhead on Jan. 26 and 27, respectively.