Entering Friday
night's home game with the Beavers, the Sioux Falls women's basketball team
knew it couldn't surrender many easy baskets to Minot State forward Carly Boag
if it hoped to win.
It didn't take
long, however, for the Tamworth, Australia native to impose her will.
MSU made 26 field goals, went 19-for-22 from the stripe, and
the Cougars simply had no answer for Minot State's bruiser from down under.
The Beavers got 37 points and 14 rebounds from Boag and ran up a commanding
50-29 advantage on the glass to knock off the Cougars, 75-70 at the Stewart
Center.
MSU improved to 10-11 (6-11 NSIC) and dropped the Cougars to 11-10 (8-9, NSIC)
with just two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Chrissy Strassburg led a trio of USF double-digit scorers with 16 points on
6-for-8 shooting. Alyssa Rushton finished with 15 points and Jaicee Ulmer added
13 in just her second start of the season.
An up-and-under from Amber Paden gave the Cougars the game's first points, but
with 18:44 to play in the first half, in a portent of things to come, Boag hit
a reverse layup to put Minot State on the board. The hosts tied the score on a
floater by Laura Johnson before Boag began to score at will.
She would finish the first half with 18 points, eight rebounds and three
steals.
With 4:59 to go, Francesca DeAngelis hit a pull-up jumper that gave the Beavers
their largest lead of the game at 34-17.
USF would respond in a big way, as Greathouse connected from
the paint and Johnson fed Ulmer for a jumper before Alyssa Rushton hit
back-to-back three pointers. When the dust cleared, the Cougars had put a 15-2
run on the board to cut their halftime deficit to four points, 36-32.
USF had also kept it close at the break by virtue of forcing 10 first half
turnovers, which it converted into 14 points.
Boag kept it rolling and tallied the first six points of the second half for
the visitors. The Cougars trailed by three, 45-42 before seven straight Beaver
points made it 52-42 MSU with less than 15 minutes left in the game.
The lead was 11 for MSU after Boag converted a traditional three point play at
the 9:47 mark. But the Cougars clawed all the way back to tie it at 61 with
four straight points from the stripe, the first two courtesy of a technical
foul on the Beavers' head coach.
The game was tied at 64 when Boag came up big once more,
scoring five straight points to give the Beavers the lead for good.
The Cougars were down 70-68 and had the ball with 40 seconds
left, but blew the chance when they turned it over to MSU.
The Beavers went 5-for-6 from the line in the waning moments to create the
final margin.
Johnson finished with eight points and a team-best 11
rebounds.
USF shot 42.4 percent from the floor, 25 percent from long
range and converted 9 of 13 free throw attempts.
The Cougars will host the University of Mary on Saturday.
